(Getting to Know) Your Inner Child
by xavacid
Summary: Kara always wondered what Alex was like as a child, so here's her chance, but really she just wanted to get to that dinner without anymore delay already. Pt. 4 of Not Just Another Day
1. hey there, little one

**(Getting to Know) Your Inner Child**

 **by XavAcid**

Chapter 1: hey there, little one

Kara didn't know what happened, so far what she knew was that Alex was on her usual raid at one of the abandoned warehouse, where they did not find any fugitive aliens, but there were things left behind that indicated whoever that was holding up there had just vacated the place, things were all over the place.

According to Vasquez the particular fugitive was wanted for selling and smuggling alien artifacts. Some were pretty ancient as far as the D.E.O could tell. Alex, as one of the lead scientists took a few of the artifacts into her lab to analyze. And somehow, one of them got activated, no one knew how it happened, or even when, but Kara came in when the older Danvers didn't get back to her about lunch by 11:45 she had to check on her.

No one else was going to enter her lab without permission, after all.

When she got to the base and headed right for Alex's lab, where everyone said she was since they got back from the raid. She could, of course, asked someone to check on her instead of coming in herself, but they had lunch planned and they'd both been very busy the last week, and before that it was the shrinking episode, they just wanted to spend quiet time together however they could find the time.

She thought she was going to surprise Alex with her favorite po boy sandwich from her favorite food truck in New York.

Well, the surprise was on her.

She could hear Alex's heartbeats even before she got to the base, so she was relatively certain that there was no emergency going on. She knew what Alex's heartbeats sounded like when she was in the middle of crisis, when she was calm, or when she was just plain irritated with whatever was going on.

And right now, she could hear the rhythm of her resting heart rate.

It was a little slow, it could mean that she was taking a nap, which Kara wouldn't blame her if she did. Her agent had been so busy lately that she was exhausted at the end of the day, and it seemed to be adding up.

But the lab was empty. At first glance.

Which didn't make any sense at all, Alex's heartbeat clearly put her here…

Large hazel eyes blinked open at her from the floor behind the desk, eyes as familiar to her as her very own, but set into smaller, younger face. Much, much younger face.

"Alex?"

* * *

Despite the fact that Kara had never seen Alex as a child before, other than a few photographs that she could sneak - teenage Alex hid all of them away from her, she never liked anyone looking at her pictures for some reason - she still could recognize those features anywhere. This was definitely Alex Danvers, there was no doubt in her mind at all.

"What happened?" She surged forward only to stop short, she didn't want to frighten her in anyway.

The young Alex Danvers did not seem frighten, though, if anything she looked curious and confused. Could be because she was in her Supergirl get up, and if nothing else, little Alex would've noticed the S on her chest.

Now, Kara noticed that she was still wearing the black polo that was a part of her uniform which was now pretty much a dress on her small frame.

"Alex?" She inched forward, and reached out with a hand, then the little girl frowned.

"I'm Kara," really how was she going to explain this to a child?

"Where're my mom and dad?"

 _Oh crap, what am I gonna tell her?_

"Um… I… they have to go away for a while so you're staying with me." She didn't know if that would be enough of an expression for a child, especially when that child was Alex. Clearly, she would've been a very very smart child. Would vague explanation be enough?

"Oh?" She looked vaguely curious.

Little Alex didn't seem especially surprised by this. Clearly, this wasn't the first time it happened, the Kryptonian assumed, and she felt saddened by it. How often did they leave Alex with someone else while they were both out doing the 'important' research?

It also reminded her of when she was younger on Krypton when her parents were busy with their responsibilities and she was left with Kalex. She understood that their works were important, but was it the same with Alex. At this age how much did she understand.

Well, they were going to find out pretty soon.

"Why are you dressed like Superman?"

"He's my cousin, but it's a secret." Kara cupped the side of her mouth, and lower her voice. "So you can't tell anyone ok?" The Kryptonian tried very hard not to show her nervousness, she had to stay calm, right now.

"Ok." Although she scrunched up her nose adorably at the mention of Superman, it seemed, unlike a lot of children on Earth, Alex didn't much care for Superman.

But at least she seemed to trust in Kara for the moment.

"Ok, come on." She opened her arms and beckoned with her hands for Alex to come to her.

Alex dark eyes searched her face for a moment longer, then she came forward so the Kryptonian could wrap an arm around her and picked her up. They had to go see J'onn, they needed to get to the bottom of this.

Before she left the room, Kara remembered to grab their lunch, because full stomach was also important.

* * *

"Is she alright?" Supergirl asked J'onn in a low voice, her eyes never left the little girl sitting upright on the examination table, dressing in ill fitting clothes -it was the best they could find until someone could get to shopping - and was distracted by shiny instruments.

"She seemed completely fine, there's nothing wrong with her physically, except the obvious."

But he was worried, just as she knew he would. They were like daughters to him, so he was always worried about the both of them.

"How did this happen?" It was clear that the Kryptonian was trying very hard to stay calm, and kept her voice down.

"I will get someone on that, but it's most likely the artifacts that we recovered earlier today. Alex took a couple to her lab." He swallowed and tried to keep his voice sturdy, knowing that everyone at the base took cue from him, and his second in command, he had to appear confident, especially now that Alex was indisposed. It would not help the confident of the troop if he lost his head.

And it would not help their resident Kryptonian who looked as if she was ready to punch something to fix this. To get her beloved human back.

J'onn's hand was itching to pinch the bridge of his nose, to starve away that headache, one of the human experience that he never wanted. Aside from their usual alien business, it seemed that there was never a dull moment, he wished it was otherwise, though.

"Supergirl?" Dr. Hamilton waved for their resident hero to come closer. "Director."

"Yes, is everything ok?" The Kryptonian was there in a blink of an eye.

Alex was looking at her with wide eyed and open mouth. "Whoa!" She exclaimed, "you're really fast!" Her voice high and childish, it made Kara want to scoop her up and cuddle her. The director followed at a slower pace.

"Yup. I'm faster than Superman." Supergirl told her with a big smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," dark head nodding, "I'm hungry."

"Yes, we have a few things to discuss with the doctor and then I'm taking you to lunch after, ok?"

Alex looked between the three faces and nodded in acquiescence.

"Doctor?" J'onn turned to Dr. Hamilton as soon as their resident Kryptonian finished speaking. He needed the update as much as Supergirl did.

"She's physically about five years old, a very very smart five year old, but I didn't expect any differently from Agent Danvers at whatever age. She also confirmed her age. She knows who she is, and who the both of you are, but the details are vague to her."

"How long will she stay like this?" J'onn asked when he noticed that Supergirl's attention was all for the little girl on the examination bed, the little girl that was looking through the various instruments within her reach. At the moment, she was most intended on buttons and the informations displayed on the screen.

"Can't say for certain, but it could be a matter of days, or week. We don't know yet what caused this age reversing."

"I've ordered her personal lab to be quarantined off and everything examine."

"Yes, my best guess would be whatever the team brought this morning."

"I'll-"

"Someone needs to get her some clothes." Supergirl came toward them with little Alex in her arms.

Unfortunately, the D.E.O did not have any clothes in their storage for children, that was just one eventuality they did not prepare for. Someone was going to have to pick up something for their lead agent very quickly. The girl was still in her black polo shirt that was now fashioned like a dress, her feet were bare, since none of her things she currently had in her locker would fit.

The three adults looked at each other and silently decided that it would have to be Supergirl who did the honor.

In the meantime the impatient little Alex was squirming to get down.

Supergirl gave a sigh as soon as the other two looked at her, she wanted to argue, she would have to take her, but carrying a child and flying wasn't the best idea and her lunch hour could only last for so long. There was no way she could take the half day. Ms. Grant wasn't going to allow that.

And they still got lunch to get to, she could hear the little stomach growling. Neither of them got to eat yet, and their bodies were starting to cry for some sustenance.

"I don't think I can," Dr. Hamilton said quickly. "I still have a few samples from Agent Danvers I need to run before anything else."

"I have the D.E.O to run." J'onn stated, affecting his best Hank Henshaw's authority look.

Supergirl pouted, and their little lead agent frowned.

Neither really bought what the other two were selling.

* * *

"Ok, what do you like?"

Kara held up a few graphic t-shirts for little Alex to see, they were currently in Gap Kids. It was the only place the Kryptonian could think of to take her, because she doubted Alex would wear anything frilly, and since they needed to be relatively quick, she could probably get everything they needed here at least for the moment.

Well, maybe not the shoes, but they could do that right next door.

So, armed with black credit card from the D.E.O Kara marched in with little Alex in her arms. Her lunch hour was almost up, and neither of them ate yet.

"This," little hand pulled out several graphic t-shirts, then she went and tugged at a gray long sleeved with shark in the front. "And this, and this." And another gray long sleeved with Jack Skellington in front, followed by a black hoodie.

Kara rolled her eyes when she saw the familiar glint in the earthy brown eyes, Alex was testing the limit, but so far everything she pulled out was pretty much in character of what she would wear, so the Kryptonian let her, only quickly grabbed her hand when she made a move to run deeper into the store.

It was a good thing that this was during the day, there weren't any other children around, and only a few other customers beside them in store.

"Ok, you have to wait for me."

"But-"

"No, Alex."

Little face frowned up at her.

"Let's get you some pants, and underwears, ok?"

"Ok."

They spent the next few minutes grabbing more clothes and underthings, making sure that the little brunette liked what they were getting, an employee approached them to help, and already Kara could see the way they looked at the shirt Alex was in, and the fact that she was still bare feet, so the blonde put on her best smile and declined.

They got everything they needed anyway.

"No pink." Alex said with an air of finality when Kara held up several packs of pink things, there was no moving her.

"Why not, it's cute."

"I don't want any pink." She was really firm and pushed away the pink packs of underwears and socks. Instead she went for the shark ones, and the simple monotone socks.

"Really, Alex?"

"Yeah, really."

As the time went by little Alex seemed more talkative, well, in comparison to earlier when she found her behind her desk. Kara had heard from Eliza on more than one occasions about Alex as a child, she never thought she would ever experience it.

"But you need more than one pack of those. How about the Star Wars?" The pack had coral color pair, but no pink, so that should work for the 'no pink!' stipulation.

"Fine."

Alex didn't quite know what happened, everything was so vague to her, she recognized Kara, and J'onn, and the lady doctor that she let poked and prodded her. How did she get there, she didn't really know. But she wasn't really scare, even though her mom and dad wasn't here. She knew she could trust Kara.

Kara who was a cousin of Superman.

She knew who Superman was, she'd seen him with her parents.

She didn't really like him, whenever he was around her parents, especially her dad, would be too busy to play with her. Would Kara be the same way? For some reason she felt that Kara would not abandon her, she might not be sure about a lot of things around her right now, but she could feel these things.

But for now she was hungry, and Kara really liked pastel.

No, no pastel, no way.

No Disney Princesses, either.

Alex scrunched her nose up at some of the girlie t-shirts, no way she was wearing those.

A familiar hand guided her over to the changing room, she could see another salesperson coming up to them offering to help. She didn't need help changing, she was five, not three years old.

She didn't complain when Kara came into the changing room with her, though.

"Here, I think this is the size," Kara smiled at her and broke open a pack of underwears to hand her a pair without really looking which ones she was handing over. "Do you need help putting them on?"

"No, I know how to dress myself."

"I know," a fond smile was what she got, and somehow inside her chest she felt warm. "But I can still offer to help, like you do for me."

Alex felt a smile came over her face, she accepted the blue shark underwears and started to slip them on, with Kara turned around and not looking. A pair of navy blue sweatpants with gray stars were offered next and she slipped them on without complaint. She wished for a pair of socks and shoes now, though, as she wiggled her toes, the floor was kind of cold.

"Here, let me help you with the shirt." Kara said softly and gently extracted the black shirt off of her, before putting a long sleeved shirt on. They were a little big, but Alex seemed to like them. "There, you're so cute." Suddenly she was swept up and hugged pretty tightly, a little too tight.

Alex hugged her back.

Socks were offered to her next and Alex sat down to put them on, happy for some covering on her cold feet and toes. When Kara offered her a pair of black hi-top sneakers she didn't argue.

* * *

The Kryptonian made sure to pull off all the tags so she could go and pay for them. It wasn't what she wanted to do, really, she would prefer to take Alex home and change her into new clothes, but she was running out of lunch hour now. Mr. Grant was going to be calling pretty soon.

And Alex was hungry, she could tell from the rumbling of her stomach. Well, little Alex wasn't the only one, though, Kara was pretty hungry herself.

When they were done Kara carefully folded Alex's uniform black to put away in her tote bag, and took her little hand.

"Ok, let's go pay for these and I have to go back to work."

"But I'm hungry." Despite protesting of their next destination, little feet still followed.

"I got your sandwich, we can warm it up later, but I need to get back to work."

"At the base?"

"No, at CatCo."

"What about me?" Little face looked up at her curiously, Kara could see a little nervousness in those eyes, too. And it seemed like Alex knew what CatCo was, that or she simply didn't care.

"You're coming with me." With a bright smile, the Kryptonian assured her. She would never just leave Alex anywhere she wasn't comfortable. She also made a mental note to find something for Alex to do, she didn't have any books stashed at CatCo, but she had enough tablets issued by the company that she could spare one for a good cause.

They carried on even as Kara handed over the tags, shirts, pants, and shoes box. She was pretty happy when J'onn handed over the black credit card, after all, she didn't think she had budgeted into her account to cover everything at this moment, it was mostly due to a particularly large present she'd purchased that Alex didn't know about. She also didn't think to bring Alex's bag, so she didn't have access to Alex's cards.

 _I guess, D.E.O is paying for these._

She never had to do anything without Alex there to catch her when she fall.

 _This is the time to step up, Kara_ , she told herself, eyes on little Alex who was looking at some sunglasses and a cap. She had noticed how well behaved Alex was, she acted nothing like a five year old that they used to babysit while in Midvale. She had moments of mischievous, and Kara could see the stubbornness that was purely Alex's peeking through as she argued over colors, and no dresses, absolutely no dresses. But for the most part, she was listening.

Her smile turned completely adoring when little face turned up to look at her with a pair of mirror aviator rested handsomely on her little face.

Kara paid for those as well.

* * *

"Hey, Kara." Winn called out his friend cheerfully, approaching as soon as he saw a little girl by her side. "And who is thi- Oh my God!" He came to a skidding stop as soon as little face looking up at him. "Is that Alex's kid?" He whispered.

There couldn't possibly be any other explanation, the girl looked so much like Alex, it was like they came from the same mold.

"Winn!" Kara shushed him. "This is Alex."

"What?!" His voice pitched really high, then he opened his mouth, but Kara shushed him again, and little Alex was glaring. "How is that possible? What happened?"

"There was an accident, people are working on it."

"What are you gonna tell Ms. Grant?" He eyed little Alex curiously.

"I'll come up with something."

Two pairs of skeptical eyes looked at her. Even little Alex didn't seem to have the confident in her ability to lie.

"Oh come on, I can come up with something believable!"

Two heads shook in sync with each other in disagreement.

Before they could get into anymore argument, small rumbling sounds could be heard, followed by a louder one.

"Jeez Kara, didn't you eat?" Winn said quickly and the group moved toward Kara's desk, in front of a glass enclosed office, the office that was still empty of on Cat Grant.

"I was busy!" She hissed back at her friend while quickly stashing all their shopping underneath her desk, then guided little brunette over to a chair. "Here you sit here for now, I'm gonna go warm up the sandwich for you, ok?"

"Yeah, it's fine, Kara. I'll keep an eye on her." Winn volunteered quickly, knowing that his Kryptonian friend was going to find a hidden spot and zap the sandwich instead of using the microwave in the breakroom. Her heat vision was quicker.

"I don't need a babysitter." Little Alex scowled, she might be confused about how she got here, but she wasn't a baby. Besides, Winn wasn't much of an adult anyway. Image of his desk flashed in her mind, clutter filled and littered with action figures.

She could do something with those action figures, though.

"But he needs one." Kara whispered conspiratorially to little Alex with a grin, while Winn was huffing and puffing, she kissed Alex's on the cheek and darted for the breakroom.

Leaving one little Danvers and one Winn Schott Jr. looking at each other.

* * *

"And whom might you be?"

Little Alex looked up from the tablet she'd been reading to face Cat Grant.

"Alex."

Kara just left her to grab something last minute for her boss, and Winn downloaded a game for her to play with on a spare tablet, the game only held her interest for a little, she was just now playing Pandemic, which was going pretty slow.

Cat Grant was surprised when she arrived at her office to find a little brunette girl in place where her assistant should've been. When the little girl turned to face her, her first thought was, did they have a child, since the familiarity is unmistakable. This little girl was definitely related to the Danvers.

So, where was Sunny D.?

"Your name is Alex?"

"Yes."

And now the little girl turned in her chair to look straight at her, giving her full attention, and Cat Grant was impressed. She had never really liked any children other than her own. They were just messy and loud, and she could hardly get their attention for more than a minute, she just did not have time for that. They were often jittery, and more often than not they were uncomfortable around her. And she, around them.

This little thing was sitting quite still and held her eye contact, there was no fear in her eyes, just curiosity.

 _Goodness, is this Alexandra's child?_

The shape of her face, her eyes, every feature resembled strongly of the brunette that it was pretty a given that they had some sort of relation. And apparently she was staring too long because the child was frowning up at her. Even the expression on her face...

"Ms. Grant," whatever she was going to say next was interrupted by the appearance of her sunny assistant, who was walking up to her desk with long, quick strides. "I got your afternoon green tea." Then a hot cup of tea was thrusted into her hand.

Kara was on her way up when she heard the voice of her boss asking a question, she instantly knew who Ms. Grant was talking to, and immediately she super sped up the stairs, it would not be a good idea to keep her boss waiting and wondering where she went and to add the presence of a child she did not know on the floor. It could be bad.

"Kiera," Cat took a sip of her drink, hot just like she liked it. "Did I somehow miss the memo?"

"Ms. Grant?" Her sunshine of an assistant paused on her way around her desk, her bright blue eyes questioning, head tilted slightly.

"I don't remember bring your children to work day memo."

"Oh, um… there was an emergency, and so… There was no one else to watch her." Less details, Kara told herself. Small, warm hand gripped leg of her pants and the Kryptonian knew to stop. Even as a child, Alex knew her. "She won't bother anyone, I promise!"

"And her name is Alex?"

Kara glanced at familiar hazel that looked back at her, "um… yeah, it's a family name."

"Must be confusing at the reunion."

"Oh no, not so much."

"And someone seems to fall into the Gap." Cat glanced at the outfit the little brunette was wearing, she looked like she really fell into it, and they all were brand new.

Without another word, Cat turned on the heel of her expensive shoes and stalked into her office.

Kara haved a relief sigh and turned to Alex, who kept quiet through the entire exchanged, and it was clear that she understood everything. The Kryptonian took the time to call Dr. Hamilton while she was making her way back from Noonan about what to expect. The response she got from the doctor was not to her satisfaction, but there wasn't much she, or anyone could do about it.

A team was out looking for the alien they had been hunting, and hopefully they would get more information on what the confiscated objects and who wanted them. Kara already planned on talking to her mother's AI after this, maybe there were some information there that her mother could offer.

The only thing she could do right now was keeping Alex close and kept careful watch over her. And that was something that did not need to be told to her. Alex would be completely safe with her. Dr. Hamilton also told her to keep note of what their little lead agent knew and did not know, since they didn't know if this was a complete reverse in age, which including the memory, or it was just mostly physical but her memory was intact.

But of course, it could be half and half, so far Alex did know who they all were, but nothing specific. Or at least she hadn't said anything that would let them know one way or another.

Kara felt a headache coming on.

"Kara?" Alex's young voice threw her a little, but she caught herself.

"Yeah, I'm ok," she assured her with a smile. "I got you some muffin, blueberry, your favorite." She quickly placed a small paper bag in front of Alex. "And some juice."

"Keira!"

Kara closed her eyes, she gave little Alex a gentle pat on the shoulder. "I'll be right back." Then she quickly went to the glass bowl of an office before Ms. Grant could call her again.

* * *

"Sit," Cat gestured at the space next to her on the white sofa.

Kara eyed it for a second or so before decided to sit a little away from her boss. Cat often muttered about people and personal space, especially after some meeting with investors or board members in an effort to intimidate her, so the Kryptonian always made sure that she never crowded her in anyway, especially when Cat was physically smaller than her.

People often forgot about her size because of her sheer presence that was larger than life.

But Kara was a Kryptonian living among fragile humans, she could never forget, or be careless.

"Is there a reason why you're babysitting little Alex now, you didn't have her this morning?"

Cat certainly liked to get to the point. It wasted less time.

"Family emergency," Kara tried to decide what she should say, not the truth, although she wondered what Cat would do if she knew the truth. "I can't say anymore than that, but Alex has to stay with me for now."

"So, what kind of relation does she have with Alexandra?"

"She's a cousin."

Kara felt a little drop of sweat sliding down her back at the look Ms. Grant was giving her, it was probably imagined since she didn't really sweat, but she held her expression. It wasn't like she could tell her that this was actually Alex. Ms. Grant didn't look like she believed her on the cousin part, though.

"She's very smart, and she won't be a problem, I promise." She said quickly, if she couldn't bring Alex, then someone at the D.E.O needed to watch her, which was not very ideal. And Kara just did not want that.

Cat watched carefully at the reaction of her assistant, she could tell that Sunny Danvers was nervous, but it could be chalked up this particular conversation. Or she could just be worrying about whatever family emergency that brought little Alex here.

Despite her appearance and general reputations, Cat Grant was not heartless. She was more readily to help her employees than anyone knew. Only because she usually would go a roundabout way to do it. Being a woman, she could not appear weak, and easily swayed by anyone.

Seeing how this was an emergency, and even from the few minutes that she noticed, she could see the little girl quietly played on a tablet, there was also some papers and pencils by her right hand, she was going to let this slide.

But she was going to let the entire office knew that this was an inconvenience to her.

It wasn't true, as long as Sunny Danvers did her job, she had no problem with little Alex being here, seeing how well behaved she was currently. But the rest of the company could not know this. Otherwise she might get little children running around her office when one of her employees suddenly could not find babysitter and such.

"Make sure she doesn't run around, and you can bring her." She finally said after letting the silence stretched out for a touch too long. Her assistant was starting to squirm, yes, that was what she was waiting for.

"Yes, Ms. Grant." The younger blonde said quickly, "thank you Ms. Grant. "

"Now, get me the files from accounting."

"Of course, Ms. Grant."

Like golden retriever running after a fuzzy tennis ball, Kara shot out of the office.

* * *

Alex kept an eye on the conversation going on in the office, she couldn't hear them really. But Kara looked a little squirmy, like that kid in one of her classes that never seemed to know how to stay still. Especially when he was called on by a teacher.

It was strange, she felt like everything should look different, at the same time she knew that nothing changed, like she should be looking down instead of up, but could not recall why. Things were a little fuzzy, and she couldn't grasp at any particular memory why that was.

"Alex," Winn waved to get her attention. "Hey."

When Alex met his eyes, he held up another tablet. "I installed a couple more games for you. And a few things you might like, so you won't get bored." He rolled over to her on his chair, smiling wide. He looked like he'd found a playmate.

At least he was supplying her with games and reading materials, although they were a little juvenile for her. What did he think she was? A toddler?

Alex accepted the device, a little bigger than the one she had in front of her currently, looked a little more expensive, this was probably his own personal one instead of the company issued one Kara gave her.

"Here, I installed this for you," he pointed out a few icons on the home screen and whispered out of the side of his mouth, his eyes kept darting back and forth, no doubt trying to keep watch of his boss's attention.

His boss who was talking to Kara right now.

"Thanks Winn."

"You're welcome. If you need anything just tell me, Kara's gonna be running errands a lot, so… you know…" He gestured at his own station, where his screen displayed various windows some were for works, but quite a few were something else that was probably more play than appropriate. "Just give me a nudge." He grinned.

Little Alex nodded, Winn was a good guy, and he was adaptable. She liked him, like a little brother… that didn't make much sense, considering.

The next thing she knew Kara shot out of the glass bowl of an office, only stopping long enough to tell her where she was going and that she'd be right back.

"Stay put." The blonde whirlwind said like an afterthought as she disappeared around the corner.

Alex just frowned.

* * *

a/n : So here it is, Kalex and their next adventure. They can't seem to catch a break, huh, but they got to stay without break together! I hope you enjoy the first chapter. And kid!Alex! Think Cat will try to kidnap her? Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this. I do enjoy imagining little Alex playing game with Winn (and beating his score in Mario or something), or stealing his action figure to use in her experiments. Comments will be very much appreciated. Favs are great, too! Thanks for reading.


	2. and she found a new toy!

**(Getting to Know) Your Inner Child**

 **XavAcid**

Chapter 2 : and she found a new toy!

The work day ended without any more incident, and Kara only had to leave for her side job once. And there was no update from the D.E.O regarding Alex's situation. She couldn't really decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Ms. Grant had been no less demanding than usual, although the Kryptonian noticed that she seemed to be coming up to her more often instead of yelling for her from her desk. And she seemed very interested in interacting with little Alex.

And while little Alex wasn't exactly friendly with her - she seemed to warm up to people very slowly - she was polite, but she didn't say much. Kara decided that it was a good thing that Alex remembered her, otherwise they would be in a world of trouble. Because little Alex, just like her older-self, had no trouble saying no and stood by it. She also didn't want to go to Eliza and told her what happened to her biological daughter, and she would hate it even more if she had to leave Alex in Midvale.

Kara gently closed the door behind her with a well placed kicked with her heel, while dropping key and hanging up her bag at the same time. She was careful not to disturbed her precious cargo in her arm.

Alex was all tucked out, she felt asleep on the way back from CatCo.

Normally she would've flown out, and she knew little Alex would've gotten a kick out of it, like she did when they left the desert base earlier. But with Ms. Grant's curious eyes, and shopping bags, she was going to call Uber, but Winn offered them a ride instead.

Kara supposed that she'd have to drive Alex's SUV tomorrow, she really didn't want to deal with the morning traffic. Maneuvering that monstrosity of a vehicle in the National City morning traffic was going to be a nightmare. Looked on the bright side, maybe she could talk Alex into getting that NBox Slash after this. She'd have a reason for it, now. In case she needed to get somewhere in the city and could not fly. Yeah, that was definitely a great reason to buy that cute little car.

Flying to work in the morning with Alex in her arms wasn't an option.

Besides, J'onn would definitely give her an ear bleeding lecture for it.

She caught Winn glancing at little Alex all throughout the afternoon. He looked a little amazed at almost everything she was reading on the tablets. She had commandeered two now, one that she gave her, and another one from Winn.

According to her hacker friend, he installed a bunch of games for her, which she got through and was bored of in no time at all. He was trying to be age appropriate, and she appreciated that, but she didn't think games for children was going to hold Alex's attention for long. Not with how smart she was.

Kara made her way into the loft, deciding that she was going to let little Alex nap for a little while, and she probably should pick up her mail.

With utmost care, the Kryptonian placed her precious little human down on the couch, and adjusted her so that she was in comfortable and covered her up with a soft throw. Hopefully, she would be back before little brunette woke up.

So, instead of taking the elevator, Kara opted to go down the stairs with her super speed. She knew a package was supposed to get here in a day or two, so she expected it. And she was not disappointed, when Mrs. Needleberg, her elderly super of the building greeted her with a big smile. She had always liked Alex and later Kara. She also gave Kara a break on her rent - a big help when most of her pay went to food - in exchange of Kara helping with things around the building. And the Kryptonian was more than happy to help.

She directed Kara to a sizable package sitting in her office. The box was wrapped in black plastic and somewhat smaller than she thought it would be. Kara thanked Mrs. Needleberg and picked the box up. It had a heft to it, which was kind of reassuring.

While she was researching and looking around, there were so many choices, and prices that it confused her. She knew she should've asked her friend for help in researching and picking one out instead, but she really wanted to get this for Alex. And it was quite a wait.

Kara hoped that her Alex would like the gift.

In her musing she forgot to listen to the one little occupant in the loft before she opened the door with the box in one hand.

"What's in the box?"

* * *

Alex woke up and found herself alone in a familiar loft. She sat up slowly, looking around and found no one in sight. "Kara?"

Silence.

With a small frown little Alex pushed soft thrown away from herself, deciding that she was going to have to investigate when sounds of key being turned stopped her. She tensed up for a moment, trying to decide if hiding, or attacking would be a good idea; and what could be used as weapon.

Maybe she could hide underneath the throw, for a second Alex lifted the soft blanket up. It was big enough to cover her entire body. Then the door opened. Kara was shuffling inside holding a large box in front of her.

A box.

Wrapped in black plastic.

And now that she saw it was Kara coming in, all her attention directed toward the big black box in the blonde's hand. Was it for her? The hiding plan forgotten, and she tossed the blanket aside.

"What's in the box?"

The Kryptonian did not expect her small charge to be awake yet, and was too occupied with the package in her hand that she was surprised. And only because she had a very tight control of her power that she didn't jump through the ceiling. Explaining that would be very difficult.

"Alex!" She exclaimed, "you're awake!" She quickly closed the door.

Large hazel eyes stared up at her, expecting an answer. "What's in the box?"

"Oh, it's um…"

Kara really was bad at coming up with things on the fly. Especially with Alex, regardless of the fact that her Alex was now a small five year old; she still could not lie to her. At least not without a lot of hemming and hawing, and it would not work with how smart little Alex was.

So, honesty was the only option opened to her.

"It's something I ordered for you." She stopped herself, "I mean, for the big you."

"Can I open it?" Little Alex immediately hopped down from the couch.

"Baby-" Kara kneeled down so they were eye level.

"You said it's for me."

"It's-"

"I want to see."

 _Man, she's not gonna let this go._ Kara had seen Eliza and various other people at the end of Alex's stubbornness before, and she knew how it would end.

With everyone's eventual surrender.

And then a puppy eye turned on her, and she just melted, like popsicle on the sidewalk.

"Ok," internally she gave herself a facepalm. _Embarrassing, Kara, you weak, weak, Kryptonian._

And she got a sweet smile as reward for her weakness.

"I wanna put it together."

Kara let little Alex open the package, which amount to a lot of tearing off the black plastic wrap, but little Alex did not do anymore than opened the box up, and peered inside. She took nothing out. Yet.

The Kryptonian was just finished placing an order for two large pizzas and french fries, with a side of garlic bread. While little brunette was looking at the pictures on the box, she reached in and took out a handbook to flip through. She would have to start cooking, or get something healthy to eat from now on. If Eliza knew that she fed little Alex all the junk food that she had big Alex usually got, she was going to be in for the longest lecture, the kind that would melt paint off of Kryptonian pod.

No, she would not want those.

"Baby, maybe we should keep this for some other day?"

"I wanna put it together." She repeated.

Kara took and deep breath, she never, ever once thought she would have to deal with stubborn Alex, and she didn't know how well logic and reason was going to work with her being this young.

"Ok…" she took a deep deep breath, "how about I call Winn up to see if he can come over and help?" It was a compromise, and she knew that they probably would not get to it tonight, it was late, and she was getting pretty hungry.

Little Alex looked to be contemplating the decision.

"I ordered us some pizzas." Kara offered up more incentive. "They should be here in a few minutes." Hopefully her little brunette could be distracted for the moment.

"Then you will call Winn and ask?" Little face looking intently at her, she wasn't distracted. She also seemed to instinctively known that Kara would not be any help with this, so she didn't ask.

"Yes, then I will call Winn and ask."

Reassured, little Alex went back to reading the handbooks. So intended on the machine that she didn't even ask about the pizza.

The Kryptonian could see the traits that was so very Alex shone through with almost everything little Alex did, just less tempered by maturity and patience. She knew Alex was very smart, she was just not very consciously aware of it like she was right now, since she'd always been mostly around Alex and not other teenagers when she first came to this planet. And when she finally got to be around others she remembered thinking that they were rather uninspiring, but she didn't consciously compare anyone. Mostly she just prefered Alex over everyone else. Everything Alex did was just better.

But to see her now, as a five year old, it was glaringly obvious of how very smart she was.

Then sounds of crinkling plastic bag pulled her out of her musing.

"Look Kara, there's candy in the box!"

Little Alex held a bag of Haribo gummy aloft so the Kryptonian could see, then she moved to tear the bag open.

"Oh no!" Kara sped from the kitchen island and in a blink she was right in front of the little brunette. "You gonna have to wait until after dinner." She gently took the bag of treat from little hand.

Little Alex pouted.

That was almost enough for the Kryptonian to give the candy back. Almost.

"I just want one," she said with a bigger pout. Of course she knew not to ruin her dinner with snack, mom taught her that, but just one wouldn't hurt, like dad said.

"I'll let you have one after dinner."

The pout didn't go away.

"Just one?"

 _Rao, she's deadly._ Kara had a strong urge to bang her head on the counter, but afraid that she might break the island counter instead. "You can have it after dinner." The blonde repeated, she was sure that by the time they were done with dinner, little Alex wouldn't be able to eat anything else. But she had to stand her ground, she had to be the mature one right now, now that Alex couldn't.

Alex looked longingly at the candy. "Ok," she said finally.

Alex went back to the couch to look through the box for more goodies. There were tubes and boxes inside the big box, and she didn't know if she should pull them all out. In the handbook was all the instructions, what if she pulled a box out and some things got mixed up? But she couldn't wait to get into it.

Dad used to let her help with things all the time. He was pretty bad about putting things together without Alex there to direct him. When he had the time to do it.

She hoped that Winn could come over tonight.

Dropping the handbooks, Alex hopped onto the couch and grabbed the tablet, deciding that she was going to look up some video for 3D printing, like Kara showed her how to find funny animal video earlier, she was sure she could find what she wanted. She knew how to spell.

Small fingers swiped through the menu for that familiar red play button icon that Kara showed her this afternoon. She carefully pressed on it once, and waited a few seconds for the app to load and quickly typed in the name of the machine. The little brunette was entirely unaware of a relief sigh the Kryptonian was breathing.

Kara came to join little Alex on the couch a minute later, asking if she wanted to watch something on tv, and got the answer in the negative. So, to kill some time, she flipped through the menu, considered a few new shows and making mental list of what she would like to watch with Alex- when she got back to her normal self.

"Kara," childish voice pulled her out of her surfing. "There's a lot of video of this machine."

The blonde Kryptonian threw an arm over small shoulders and leaned down to look. She was amazed at how quickly little Alex seemed to be picking up things, she'd only shown her how to search Youtube for things she could watch once, and only for children's stuff. But for her to search for instructional video on an unfamiliar website? To say that she was impressed was a major understatement.

"Wow, you're right." Kara exclaimed. "Do you wanna pick one to see?"

Little finger tapped on the top link, and Kara directed her to cast it onto the tv screen. "So we can see it nice and big."

Dark head nodded, and the now older girl couldn't help but kissed her on the crown of her head.

* * *

"Can we call Winn now?"

Little Alex put down the cup of apple juice Kara gave her to drink. She was full, and ready to get to the printer.

The Kryptonian had been hoping that her young brunette would forget about it after dessert, apparently her reversal in age did nothing to her eidetic memory. Kara really should know better, but she could hope.

They ran through a little of the live build of the printer, and turned it off once the pizzas arrived. They had their dinner, Alex devoured two slices of pizza very quickly. Kara had to slow her down, and reminded her to chew. She was done very quickly. And Kara missed big Alex, her Alex. They would mocked fight for the last piece of pizza and snuck french fries off of each other's plate.

And then desert.

They would at least linger over deserts. Alex rarely could eat more than a bite or two of whatever they were having, and Kara would finish the rest. But little Alex only wanted small scoop of ice cream, and Kara couldn't even pretend to take a bite from her bowl, a five year old Alex would not understand. But it seemed to work in distracting her from the printer for a moment. And also the candy that came with it.

There was no way they could build the whole thing tonight, and that was if Winn decided to come over tonight, which she hoped he wouldn't. It was getting late and she needed to get little Alex into a bath and bed. She was sure bedtime applied when the older Danvers was now the younger.

She had to remind herself to be the responsible one.

"Ok, I will call Winn, but if he said no, you are going to take a bath so we can get ready for bed." She waited till the little brunette agreed.

So, Kara made the call to her tech geek friend.

 _'Hey Kara, what's up?'_

"Hey Winn, you remembered I show you the 3D printer I thought about ordering for Alex?"

 _'Oh yeah.'_

"Well, it's here now."

 _'Shut up! You ordered it without telling me?'_

"Yeah, I was reading their lead time and I was afraid that it might take too long and she might just order it herself and I really wanna get her something big because you know, she's been really awesome about everything in the last decade or so and…" Kara knew she was babbling, and apparently little Alex knew, too, because she started tugging at her shirt.

"Ask him."

"Ok, ok…"

"So, yeah, and Alex saw it cause it got here today and she wanna put it together tonight."

 _'You got a kit?'_

"Well, you said it'd be good to know the working of it!"

 _'Yeah, but isn't this a little late? Shouldn't she be in bed soon?'_

"Yes," Kara emphasized the word, so he would know to say no. And Winn did not disappoint, just in case little ears could hear more than one side.

So when she turned to the little brunette she was glad she didn't have to lie. "He promised we could do it tomorrow, though, he'd come straight here with us after work."

A frown appeared on little face and Kara had the urge to kiss it away and gave her everything she wanted. She really had to stop herself and reminded herself that she was the older one right now, and had to be strong. Already, in the face of that adorable pout, she found herself melting.

 _You're Supergirl, Kara,_ she repeated to herself.

Little Alex knew from the one sided conversation that she was listening to that she wasn't going to get to put the printer together tonight, and pouted, she really wanted to get started. The video they were watching earlier showed hours of live build. But they could do better, she was sure.

But at least Kara said that they could do it tomorrow. She didn't know why they didn't start now, Kara could speed through it, couldn't she? She was Supergirl and she could move really fast. That should make it faster. They could even take the video so they could show it to mom and dad later!

Now little Alex imagined what she could do with a 3D printer.

Then she dove for the tablet again, wanting to see what she could do on the machine that had yet to be built. Little fingers flew over the on screen keyboard to find what she could. Kara was still on the phone with Winn, so she was surprised when she was picked up from the couch she nearly drop the tablet.

"Kara!" Alex squeaked.

"Bath time."

* * *

The blonde Kryptonian looked down fondly at the small body curled up next to her. Bathtime went a little less smoothly than she anticipated, because little Alex wasn't pleased at the way she plugged her from the couch and interrupted her search for more information on the printer.

It was such an Alex's thing that she didn't even mind the water puddles in the bathroom from Alex being a little brat and splashed some water at her. The little brunette enjoyed playing in the bath though, even when she insisted that she wasn't a baby, and she didn't need bath toys. Kara disagreed, everyone needed bath toys.

So Kara let her splashed around for a while.

After bath, they settled in for some movie, Kara let her pick what she wanted to watch. At first she just wanted to search for more video and the Kryptonian let her, for a little while.

Everything seemed to interest her little brunette, it was too bad that Kara couldn't explain some of the things she wanted to know. And she had to cut it short since every new informations seemed to excite her more, and it was less likely that she would go to bed at a decent time. They really didn't need a cranky five year old.

They settled in and built a fort out of pillows and blanket on the floor in front of the couch and moved the coffee table out of the way. A few episodes of Dragons later, the currently youngest Danvers was now deeply asleep.

With a soft smile, the Kryptonian adjust her position carefully and went to sleep.

* * *

"I'm so jealous."

Winn quickly matched the speed of his friend as she came through the door right after he did.

"Good morning to you, too, Winn."

"You didn't tell me you ordered a Prusa," Winn stage-whispered. "You know I wanna get one."

Kara was a little later than her usual time this morning, because she had to get little Alex up and dressed, made her breakfast, packed up stuffs to entertain her for the day. She had never been more thankful of her super speed than this morning. She also had to brave the traffic on Alex's shiny black SUV as well. That was not something she wanted to do, but carrying little Alex and her backpack and a tote and fly at the same time was not a good time made.

So she braved the traffic.

"Well, you were saying you're gonna look into some other ones, and the leading time was starting to get too long the longer I waited, so I just ordered it one night." The normally sunshine and rainbow of a Kryptonian replied while shifting little Alex onto her hip.

She was actually looking through the website and the forum that one night she was too keyed up to sleep after a car chase, and Alex was supervising the cleanup of the containment cells overnight. It was one of the rare nights they spent apart, so she thought it was a good time as any to get the order in. Besides, it was going to take a while for the package to ship.

She really was going to tell her friend in the morning, but something else came up and she forgot all about it. Until she got the shipping notification, but by then it was too late anyway.

Once she got to CatCo Plaza and found a parking spot she was a little late, and little legs couldn't keep up with her, so Kara carried her, which of course the little brunette protested, at first. But she promised a chocolate chip cookies when she pick up latte for Ms. Grant, and that seemed to do the trick. For now. She was more interested in the conversation around her more, anyway.

Winn was pouting, which little Alex thought was ridiculous, he could come over and use hers, Kara said it was hers, if he wanted. Then he could get his own later. But he would have to come over and help her build it first.

Seriously, Alex knew she could do it herself, now that she watched a few of the videos, and she read through the handbook on their way this morning. She already had her notebook, and pencils, she was going to take lots of notes and made diagrams for later. The older girl gave her plenty of snacks, too. Alex didn't bring that bag of gummy bear, though, she was going to save it for the build. She might have to share it with Winn, though, but she decided that it was ok to give him one.

"Yeah, but I thought you were gonna wait for me." He pouted harder.

Kara rolled her eyes as they arrived at their respective work station and she put little Alex down. Ms. Grant wasn't in yet, so she had some time to run out. Good.

"You can use mine." Childish voice chimed up.

The two adults looked down at the little brunette. Large hazel eyes moved between them "You can help me build it and then you can use it, too."

"Oh…" Winn looked really surprise at the offer, then he looked like he might cry.

"It is mine, right Kara?" Little face looked up at her Kryptonian, to confirm. Kara swooped down and swept her up for a cuddle, and spun her around amidst the squealing and protesting.

"You're such a good girl Alex."

Alex had always been so kind, even when she didn't like that she suddenly had to take care of a stranger from a different planet, when she was barely older than the said stranger, herself. But she did it anyway. She was always the one taking care of others, and especially Kara. Recently she also seemed to adopt Winn as well. Like a little brother she didn't really want, she once said.

The offer was unexpected, and Winn was more emotional about it than this warranted. Alex didn't really know him right now, actually she probably didn't really know anyone right now, but she was willing to trust them, willing to share with him her brand new thing. He wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to grow up in the Danvers household.

He wanted to hug her now, but that probably wasn't going to be received well.

"I said you could bring her, doesn't mean you can just cuddle her all day, Keira."

The duo jumped at the voice rang out from mere feet away from them. Cat Grant had arrived while they weren't looking.

"Ms. Grant!" Kara squeaked out, while Winn just high tailed to his desk. Traitor, Kara thought sourly. "Good morning."

"Where's my latte?"

"I'll get it for you now." She quickly moved to settle her little charge down.

"Good morning, Alex." Her boss said with a smile.

"Morning." Little Alex replied.

"And how are you today?"

Now, the Kryptonian frowned, Ms. Grant liked to chat with Alex, big Alex, too. She wondered maybe it was the name.

"Fine." Alex was short with her answers, which was probably a good thing. Cat felt her eyebrows lifted toward her hairline. _My, are all the Danvers this reticent,_ she wondered. She had met quite a few - not that many- children, she even had two of her own, none of them this quiet and serious, especially at five years old.

"And my latte, Keira?"

"Yes, um… right away Ms. Grant!"

Cat noticed that her Sunny of an assistant looked torn, she had one foot in front, ready to go, but leaning back, like she could not decide if she should. So Cat decided for her.

"I'm sure Wit can watch her for a few minutes."

"Yes, um… ok… Be right back." She told little Alex quickly and practically run out. At slightly over human speed.

* * *

Winn watched his boss stood there for a few minutes, unlike her usual routine where she would head right into her office and observed everything from there. He braved her attention by directing little Alex over to Kara's desk and settled her in, he produced a tablet from his bag for her. He installed a bunch of things for her last night, hopefully some would be enough to entertain her.

He knew how boring things could get, it was never good to let a kid be bored, they could cause so much trouble that way, he knew, so it was better to occupy her. He noticed the way she eyed his action figures and all the threats Alex made about taking them for some weird sculpture came back to him in a nightmare.

So, nope, he was going to do his best to keep her entertain. No way was he going to let her dismantled his collectible.

His boss didn't go into her office during all this time.

"I saw this video," her childish voice still threw him a little. "And I brought the handbook." She picked up the backpack she had, he didn't even notice it. Little hands produced an A5 size handbook to show him.

Winn was impressed, cause the handbook looked like it'd been open and read from cover to cover. Must be the Danvers' gene, she was so damn smart, he was a little envious. Of course it could be Kara reading it, but he doubted it. Kara was not one for technical things, even though she came from a very advanced civilization.

"You're helping me build this tonight, right?"

"Ah… yeah, of course." Then he noticed the way his boss was still standing there, observing, he quickly made an excuse. He didn't want to lose his job, after all. "I better get back to my desk."

A small nod was what he received.

"Ms. Grant." He said and quickly hopped over to his desk and sat down.

Cat Grant went back to her office right after. But she kept an eye on the little figure sitting at her assistant's desk and wondered about Alexandra, and how the couple probably liked a glimpse into their future, seeing how little Alex was certainly a splitting image of the big Alex. It was like looking at their future children or something.

* * *

Kara quickly changed the moment she was in the stairwell and out of sight. She'd better get that latte quick, and she promised Alex a chocolate shake as well as some muffin. Really, Eliza would not be very happy if she knew that she gave little Alex this much sugar before noon. But she did promise her chocolate shake to get her cooperation this morning, so she would have to get her that.

She shuddered to think what little Alex would do if she break that promise.

Alex, as she had learned growing up with her, in any form, could be devious sometimes. And Alex in little form could definitely get away with anything. She already knew that she had no defense against those big eyes and little pout.

With a quick call ahead of time, Kara was able to be in and out of Noonan's and back to CatCo before her boss had to chance to make someone else's life miserable due to the lack of morning caffeine. Hands ladened with bake goods and drinks Kara stepped out of the stair well, shaking her head to settle her wild hair. Flying didn't mess up her hair as much as running up the stairs did.

She darted to her boss's office to deliver her morning caffeine fix and back at her desk to a grinning little Alex who was eager for her own sugary treats.

"Kara, look." Little hands held up an open notebook with a very detailed plan for their night activity, mainly consisted of a very good drawing - for a five year old- of the printer, and Sunny Danvers spied 'pizza' several times.

"That's very detail Alex." She widened her eyes, and gushed over it for a few minutes. "Wow, you're very good."

Little face beamed up at her in delight. And Kara couldn't be happier. As teen, she had seem so many times that what teenage Alex did and showed to her mother she would get less than lukewarm response from Eliza. Excellence was expected of her, so what great things she did were received with an air of 'of course you did', and that was it. No other praise was given, as if her excellence was a given, and in someway it was, still Kara thought Alex deserved a lot more. A lot, a lot more.

Unlike any mistake she made, however few and far in between there was. The admonishments were so heartbreaking that Kara didn't think she could take it had it been her on the receiving end.

Alex never talked about it.

She seemed to take it as challenge for herself and strove to do better. Kara admired that about her so very much, but at the same time she was afraid that her beloved human would burn herself out like shooting star trying to match the impossible demands.

So, while she had her like this, Kara was going to praise her little Alex for everything she did. It might not make any different in the long run, but she was going to do it anyway. And for that sweet smile she was willing to do anything.

"I'm gonna do research."

The way she eagerly said it made Kara wanted to scoop her up again, but she didn't think that was going to go over very well, especially when she could feel the eyes of the entire floor, and especially that of her boss on her.

"Ok, if you need anything-"

"I'll tell you." Alex replied in her childish voice.

"Ok…" Kara watched her little charge hopped onto the chair carelessly and went right back to her notebook and tablet. Then she noticed a weird jerky motion Winn made with his hand, then head broke her out of her reverie as he pointedly tilted his head toward their boss's office.

"Back to work." She squeaked, "yes, work."

* * *

Cat Grant looked up on occasions to see the going ons of her employees. Her Sunny assistant ran in and out, to get her files and arranged meeting and whatever menial tasks involved in running her office. And right now she was out. But whereabout of Sunny Danvers was not of her concern at the moment. It was the little dark head child sitting with her feet swinging back and fort. Little hands scribbling into her ever growing pile of notes.

Cat nibbled on her glasses, her work was getting annoying, even without being in front of her, her employees still managed to be irritating. She wondered how it was that they could get anything done at all with their incompetencies. Sometimes she felt like a preschool teacher.

Putting her glasses back on, Cat Grant tried to get back to her laptop, fingers poised on the keyboard, but she just couldn't concentrate. Minutes later she found herself looking out to where her assistant's desk was.

Sunny Danvers was still nowhere to be found.

But that wasn't who she was concerning herself about, instead her attention was on the five year old, now out of her chair and went over to the sweater hobbit, papers in little hands. She was clearly showing the man something.

Now, what could a five year old be writing about.

* * *

Kara was zooming down the stairwell, an emergency of the non alien kind had her running out and all over the city. This was the day she was hoping that things could be quiet. Apparently the bank robbers thought it was best to try to rob a bank in the middle of the day in National City and had the audacity to be surprised when she showed up.

At least she could wrap them up quickly and left them on the steps for the NCPD to take care of them. She felt bad when some children wanted to interact with her, but she didn't have time for that today.

She quickly stopped by at the art department to get the layout for Ms. Grant. That was what she was getting when she heard the distress call. She saw that James wanted to talk, except she didn't have the time right now. Not when she'd already been gone for twenty minutes, and not for the first time today. Even if Ms. Grant did not ask, she always had a sort of excuse to offer. Though, Kara noticed that lately her boss didn't even bother asking her whereabout as long as she had something to show for it.

When she arrived at her floor, folder in hand she found Ms. Grant standing by her desk, looking at something little Alex did. She saw Alex flipping holding up her notes for Cat Grant to look at. Apparently the twenty or so minutes that she was away was long enough for CatCo CEO's curiosity to get the better of her.

"Ms. Grant?" Kara rushed over to them.

"Oh Keira." Cat Grant had her hand over little shoulder. "I was starting to wonder if you got lost on the way to art department."

"Oh, um… James was getting some last minute editing done," the Kryptonian had to bite her tongue, she didn't want to throw anyone under the bus, but well, she didn't know what else to tell her. "Here!" She practically thrust the folder in her boss's hand.

Cat barely glance at it. "So, I've heard you bought a printer for Alexandra."

Little Alex looked up at the both of them at the name, but said nothing. She knew not to interrupt adults when they were having conversation. And on some level that she couldn't really explain to herself, she knew not to say anything when they talked about Alex, even though she knew that it was her they were talking about, it was all so confusing.

"Oh yeah… um… yes. Yes, I did."

"And little Alex here has plan for it."

"Yes, she does." Kara looked down and smiled fondly at her. "She's completely fascinated by it."

"I can tell." Cat Grant looked down and smile at the little brunette. She liked that little Alex was so very smart, and did not filled the air with incessant chatter like most children. She'd also read some of the notes that Alex made, they were intelligent beyond her five years. Though her notes were complex and very very details they were still from a child. Written with a child's imagination. The few pages that she had glimpsed of had 'gummy' and 'dragon' in them.

Cat wanted to point out her unrealistic plan of putting together a semi complex machine in one evening. But she decided that it was best to not upset the little girl. Besides, she liked how ambitious she was. Little Alexandra was definitely going to grow up to be someone worth knowing.

She'd keep an eye on her. Maybe two.

"You know, my son Carter would probably like to hear about this printer you are putting together as well." Cat started conversationally with the little girl, a hand on her little shoulder to guide her into her office.

Alex turned to look at Kara, as if to ask if she should go. Kara felt her jaws go slack, but she composed herself quickly. She didn't want little Alex to feel like she had done something wrong by engaging with Cat Grant.

So she gave her a reassuring smile.

Still as she let Cat Grant led her away, little Alex was still looking back.

"I can't believe Ms. Grant did that." Winn kicked the leg of his desk and rolled over to hers on his chair, once the pair went into the fishbowl of an office.

"I know." Kara moaned and sank down in her own chair. She should've known that her boss was going to be fascinated with Alex in whatever form.

* * *

a/n : So, I got the bulk of this written before I went out of town, but when I came back I was just exhausted... But I am back in the swing of things now. The chapter is getting a little big, so I decided to break it up and post this first. I don't want it to be a long wait. I hope you guys like. And yes, Fluff, fluff everywhere.

And for any curious reader.. Prusa I3 Mk3 is a cartesian style 3d printer, from Czech by Prusa Research. And Kara ordered a kit for Alex so she could put it together. Now little Alex will, but she's gonna be pretty disappointed to know that it takes a while for an object to be printed. A LONG while. I wish someone would get me the MK3 LOL. I'll be more than happy with MP Select Mini.

edit : for some reason deleted my break lines, so edited to put them all in.

Thanks for reading guys, comments and favs are happily received.


	3. lunch and new friend

**(Getting to Know) Your Inner Child**

 **XavAcid**

Chapter 3 : lunch and new friend

"Keira."

Kara's blonde head snapped up toward her boss. "Yes, Ms. Grant?" She hopped up from her seat quickly, one hand grabbed one of the tablets from her desk, and rushed into the office. Little Alex was busily scribbled something in her notebook, but she immediately looked up when Kara came into the room.

Her little face was frowning once she realized that Cat was calling for Kara, with a wrong name.

"Time for lunch, I think."

"Ok," Kara quickly pulled up a list of restaurant, getting ready to make a call. "And what can I get you today?" She smiled down when she saw her young charge slide down from her boss pristine white couch and sidled up next to her.

"Get me some salad, with cheeseburger on top. Medium rare." Cat said with an airy wave of her hand. "Then you can take Alex to a long lunch."

Little Alex had been spending the morning in Cat's office, Kara kept an eye on her, while trying to do her own work and ran around the building at the same time. She at least kept an ear trained on little heartbeats at all time when she wasn't in her line of sight.

Though Alex did come to her and Winn, bringing things for them to see, to show her what she found through the search. She was so excited about the printer, and Kara was glad for the timing, even when she wasn't happy about it at first, she was glad that there was something to occupy her. She couldn't imagine what a bored little Alex was like.

Oh she knew what a bored big Alex was like, and it was a scary thing. As most of the techs at D.E.O could attest to.

Hopefully, when she got back to her big self she would be excited about the printer, too. It took Kara months to save up for it. She even ordered less potstickers so she could have the extra to put away, Alex was starting to get suspicious, and she tried to play it off as best she could. Kara was pretty sure that the older Danvers did not believe her, though.

At least she didn't have to do that anymore. It was so difficult trying to keep anything from Alex.

Kara made a quick call to the restaurant, and she was told that her order would be ready in fifteen minutes, and she told her boss so.

"I'll go pick it up now."

"I'll come with." Little Alex chirped up, she had shuffled back toward the coffee table where all the papers were and gathered them all up in a neat pile. She knew she couldn't just leave it all messy, she had to pick up after herself. Mom would not like it if she knew Alex was being messy. And as soon as Kara moved to leave she shot forward, intending to grab her things and go with.

Cat's head snapped up from her laptop, her pretense at nonchalant was gone as she started to get up from her seat. Kara, however, was quick to scoop the little brunette up in one arm as she ran past her.

"Oh no baby." Kara swayed a little with the momentum. "I'll go and you stay with Ms. Grant, then we'll get some lunch after, ok?" It wasn't that she wanted to please her boss or anything, but it would be much quicker for her to go by herself, she could fly there and back in under a minute. And if she needed to make a detour she could do that without worrying about leaving Alex by herself. Or took Alex with her into the fray.

Besides, the quicker she got her boss's lunch, the quicker they could get to their own.

"We'll go after?"

"Yes, you and me, we'll get something good for lunch." Kara promised with a smile.

Little Alex stared at her for half a minute, seemingly thinking about her options before throwing both arms around her neck and squeezed. "Ok." Then she pulled back and continued with an utmost serious look on her sweet little face. "And I want some fries, and coke, and cookies."

Cat was impressed.

Apparently those were the things she did not usually get, otherwise, she would not have demanded it with such seriousness, and for her to know to use her compliance to bargain for what she wanted.

Cat Grant did not plan on having the child in her office, really she did not. It was true that she was interested when she first laid eyes on her, carried in by her Sunny of an assistant the day before, and how very much she looked like Alexandra, whom she was fascinated with. She wondered if the all the family had that strong of a resemblance. But she was not very good with children and had no desire to be around ones that were not of her own.

Little Alexandra, however, was adorable in her seriousness. This was something she had never thought about of any child other than her own, and it certainly was not something she was going to admit to.

The next thing she knew Sunny Danvers was agreeing to all the stipulations and little Alex was happily settled onto the ground and darted back to her.

Her Sunny assistant was already fleeing her office.

Just, _woosh,_ and gone.

* * *

"Hey Kara!"

Kara's barista friend Julie's voice rang out as soon as she entered Noonan's, it was nice to be greeted with a smiling face whenever she came here, especially when she had to order coffee for Ms. Grant. They let her call in the orders and picked it up. Her superspeed wasn't going to do anything if she had to wait in line to get coffee.

"Hi Julie."

"Oh goodness.. Who is this cutie?" Julie came to a stop in front of them and practically squatted down to be on the eye level with little brunette. "Hi, I'm Julie." She offered a hand.

Little Alex looked up at Kara and only accepted the handshake when she got a nod.

"Hi." Alex pushed her mirrored aviator up over her hair and smile.

Kara grinned when her friend squealed, yeah, she felt that way all the time even when little Alex did something simple as tugging on her coat. When they got dressed this morning Alex chose a long sleeved t-shirt with Jack Skellington on it, and a pair of joggers. Kara was itching to help when her little brunette was struggling with pulling her arms through the sleeves, but she held herself back. Especially after she was told not to help, and Alex insisted that she knew how to dressed herself for the third time.

She was absolutely adorable in what she chose to wear, but the Kryptonian wished that little Alex would pick something with more color.

She would look so pretty in pastel, big or little.

Actually growing up together, Eliza managed to get Alex into dresses on occasions. And those occasions seemed so special to Kara because Alex in a dress, although she would scowl for most of the time; the alien still thought she was beautiful. Now a day, Alex would only wear dresses when she had to, like when she went to dinner with that ass Maxwell Lord. And Kara didn't even get to see her in the dress.

She'd heard that the older Danvers turned just about every head in the place, and not only because none of them ever saw her all dolled up, but she was gorgeous, according to the water cooler talk she picked up. Now maybe she could get Vas to pull up the footage, since the older Danvers would have to walk across the D.E.O at least. Hopefully, the footage was still there.

Oh yeah, she'd do that later today when she drop in with little Alex for a check up.

When she brought Cat her lunch, she found little Alex sitting on the couch next to her boss, showing her something on the tablet, and Cat was nodding and agreeing with her. It was almost too cute for words, and she discreetly took a photo with her phone, she'd show that to Alex later. But of course the moment she set foot into that glass bowl of an office, little Alex's attention was on her.

Apparently she was a little hungry, despite snacks she had earlier, and was more than ready to go. She quickly put down the notebook in her hand and climbed down from the couch. The little brunette almost forgot about Cat Grant, almost. At the last minute as she ran to her blonde Kryptonian she turned to call out "see you later" to Cat.

Kara decided to stay close to CatCo for lunch, and Alex did admit that she liked their muffin, also chocolate shakes, even though she rarely ordered it, complaining about gaining the weight from all the sweets Kara insisted on getting every morning. Really, she didn't know what the older Danvers was complaining about, she worked in the field, she trained the recruits, and also the Kryptonian herself. There was not an ounce of extra fat on her anywhere. And how would she gain weight from Kara eating, by osmosis?

"Can we get a table?" Kara asked after she deemed that little Alex endured enough fawning from her friend now.

"Yes, follow me. I'll get you the best table." She led them toward one of the more quiet tables. She knew Kara for a while now and she understood that sometimes her friend needed a little quiet corner, especially during her earlier days in National City when she got overwhelmed with the amount of people and the demands of her boss.

"Thanks Julie."

They got a small table at the quietest corner of the place, which was also Kara's favorite table.

The Kryptonian made sure her little Danvers seated comfortably in her booster seat then she sat next to her.

"So, what can I get you?" There was no need for a menu, of course, Kara had it memorized since the first month she worked at CatCo.

So, Kara rattled out a few orders for a start for herself and little Alex.

"And a coke." Childish voice chimed up.

"Yes, and a coke," she so hoped that Alex wouldn't remember that, a wishful thinking, Alex had impeccable memory, little Alex would be no different.

A smile she got for a simple thing, though, worth more than anything.

Kara was also too smitten with this version of Alex; just as she was with the older version to notice the mischievous glint in her dark eye, or the tiny little smirk on her little face.

Kara had to make a couple of calls to the D.E.O, since no one was contacting her, she wanted to make sure that everything was alright. And she especially wanted to know if there was any new development, and if there was anyone she needed to beat up for some answers.

So far, J'onn was telling her not to worry, that everything was under control. She had to disagree, She was going to continue to worry until they could get Alex back to her old self. She was frustrated that she could not do much to help finding the solution, or the person responsible. This was when the Kryptonian wished that she had some of her father's and her adopted family's inclination for science.

She had no doubt that if their roles were reversed, Alex would already be halfway to solving it right now. She would definitely be in the thick of it, just like when she got shrunk.

And all Kara could do now was taking care of little Alex, because she could not just punch this problem away.

With a deep sigh, the Kryptonian brought her attention away from her phone and back to the child next to her. Dark eyes were on her, curious frown settled on her little face. So, she smiled and wiped a smudge of ketchup on her little chin.

"Little piggy."

Little Alex pouted, but stayed put and let Kara cleaned her face. There was half a plate of french fried left and she was feeling full, she didn't want to leave her food unfinished. Mom always said for her to finish her food, and she knew she ordered too many things.

The Kryptonian noticed the lingering look little Alex was giving the half finished french fries, she knew that by now, with the amount of the food, her little brunette was probably full, and was worried about not finishing her food.

Kara wasn't about to make her finish all of it, she did not want her to overeat, and it would be bad later on. Last thing she needed was a sick five year old on her hand. She didn't trust her own ability to not cry if that happened. So, she told little Alex not to worry about it, that she'll finish the food. An answering smile was blinding if a little messy.

* * *

Kara finished all the food on the table and ordered some cookies to bring back. This gave her friend a few minutes to fawn over the little brunette. Little Alex was looking a cross between wanting to hide away and preen at the attention. It was so Alex that it almost brought tears to her eyes. Big Alex also did not like being the center of the attention. Although the Kryptonian thought that was probably because she was always in the shadow, always being the one that supported her, and trying to keep them safe by being out of the limelight.

And any attention to herself could bring attention to Kara and her identity.

And not for the first time, Kara wished that Alex would get all the adoration and accolades she deserved for the work she did and how many time she'd saved the world, and saved Kara.

How different their lives would be, if Alex simply broke away when she left their home in Midvale and just lived her life. Or if Kal took her to live with him, or left her with his parent in Kansas instead. Her human could've been a rock star scientist in any field of her choosing, and never have to live in danger.

That was the only thing she regretted about her presence in the Danvers house. She expressed this sentiment to Alex one night, and was told to never say anything about it ever again. That she never wanted any other life than the one she was living in.

And just the thought of never had the chance to grow up alongside Alex, to never know her the way she did, rendered her a sobbing mess.

Pulling herself out of her own thought, Kara gently took a small hand into her own, Ms. Grant was telling her to take extra long lunch today, but the sunny blonde doubted she would appreciate a two hours lunch, no matter how much she liked little Alex.

"Bye Alex." Julie waved. "Bye Kara."

"See you later."

Kara was beyond regretting her decisions to not sneak drinks from that can of Coke she let little Alex had ten minutes later as they made their way back to CatCo Plaza. The little brunette was skipping and running, and only because Kara refused to let her hand go that she didn't just run ahead and got lost in the lunch crowd.

Hopefully, the walk back would spend some of her energy. Or they were all going to have a hard time being in the office this afternoon. And not to mention the inevitable crash after. It wasn't going to be very pretty.

Now an hour later Alex was still skipping about. The Kryptonian had to give her another notebook for her to write more notes after she ran out of the space on the one she gave her earlier in the morning. Wow, she wondered if this was how Alex was at this age, if so, she wondered if Eliza kept her things, still. Maybe on their next trip to Midvale, she could go snoop around in the attic and see.

And it was also a wonder of wonders that Ms. Grant did not say a thing when little Alex ran in and out of her office and barely able to sit still. She just gave her sunny assistant a glare when little Alexandra once again hopped off of the couch and ran out. But eventually, she ran out of steam and was nodding off when she was sitting with Kara, trying to write down something she found on the tablet Winn gave her to use. She put down her pencil and slipped off of the chair only to tug on her Kryptonian's shirt sleeve.

When the Sunny blonde looked at her she gestured to be pick up. Kara did, she gathered her up and settled her on her lap, she leaned back so that Alex could rest against her front. Except, the little Danvers was still stubborn enough to try to write her note.

"Bring her in here." Cat Grant called out she was also looking up from time to time to check on the little brunette.

She knew that Sunny Danvers gave her all the sweets she asked, as apparent by the excess energy that had the little girl hopping about like energizer bunny. Being a mother, Cat knew that she would crash eventually. She had seen it played out numerous times with Carter.

And now the little girl would need a nap.

As soon as she saw little Alex got picked up and seated on Sunny Danvers' lap, she knew the inevitable crash was coming.

Sunny Danvers who was trying to take care of a phone call as well as trying to keep the girl tucked against her front was looked at her boss questioningly. Now, really, normally her very quick and quirky assistant could read her mind better than this.

"Ms. Grant?"

"Bring her in here," she so hated to repeat herself. "She needs a nap and you're not gonna go put her underneath the desk like a kitten."

The Kryptonian blinked, she really wasn't thinking that far ahead. "No, I wasn't."

"Hang up that call, and bring her in here." Cat repeated again and turned around and walked back into her office.

Kara took another thirty seconds to cut short the call and hung up, Alex was already face down on her notebook, little hand slack. She should really sneak a couple of snapshots for later.

Too late now, though.

Well, at least she'd still have Winn as witness to how adorable konged out child Alex was. Oh, maybe he could get her some security footage or something, she should ask him if there was any camera directed at her desk. She knew the general positions of all the camera on this floor, as Alex drilled into her how important it was that she was aware of them. So that when she had to leave for emergency Supergirl business she would not be caught by any of them. And now she realized that if there was one directed at her desk, she was sure that Winn would direct it elsewhere without prompting.

That was too bad, now she was sure that there was no footage of little Alex falling asleep at the desk.

Gently, she got up with the currently five year old in her arms, she felt warmth spread through her chest when little Alex fussed a little and settled just as quickly with her head on her shoulder. She resisted the urge to blush when her eyes met her boss's from inside the office.

The Kryptonian made her way inside the glass bowl of an office with quick sure steps, and settled the small child on the white couch, before Cat Grant covered her up with a soft throw.

"She should be fine." Her boss said quietly as she kneeled down to slip off the high top sneakers the little girl was wearing. She set them neatly by the couch. She did so miss when Carter was this young.

"Yes, thank you Ms. Grant."

"Yes, yes, now back to work." The Queen of all Media flapping her hands then she turned back to her own desk.

Kara grinned at the dismissive gesture and headed back to her own desk.

Sure Ms. Grant was gruff about it, but she was practically whispering her words, probably afraid that she might wake little Alex up.

* * *

"Hi Kara."

The sunny Kryptonian looked up to see a smiling face of one Carter Grant. The twelve year old was still in his school uniform, although he took off his jacket and loosen his tie, he had his backpack slung over one shoulder and folded jacket tucked into it.

"Hey Carter, your mom is down at the art department right now." Kara smiled and quickly slipped him a small bar of chocolate from her snack drawer, "she should be here very soon."

He grinned at her from ear to ear, and took the candy. He loved it, he started to unwrap the snicker bar when his eye caught a sight of a little girl in his mom's office. "Um… Kara?"

The Kryptonian looked up from the note in front of her and followed his line of sight. "Oh, that's-"

"-Did my mom adopt a daughter when I'm not looking?" His voice was laced with amusement and curiosity, but at the moment curiosity was more prominent.

"No-no, that's Alex," Kara quickly got up and headed into the glass office, "she's my little cousin."

"She has the same name with your Alex?" Carter was right at her heel.

"Yes, it's a family name."

"Really?" He looked a little skeptical.

"Yup."

Carter Grant was very happy that his club activity was canceled today. So, instead of calling for his nanny to come get him, he simply took the bus. He did call Clair first, though, so she wouldn't be worried, but he did not tell his mom that he was coming to see her. Not that he thought she was going to say no, but surprises could be a good thing sometimes. That was what Kara told him, once. He tried to learn to be spontaneous, and not be bothered too much when things did not go according to plan. That was still difficult a lot of time, though.

Apparently he was the one surprised today. And not a bad kind either.

He took a good look at the little girl who was looking up at Kara, he could see the family resemblance with Alex, definitely, her nose and her eyes looked exactly like Alex's.

Wow.

* * *

"Hey, Alex." Kara kneeled in front of her little brunette. "Whatcha doing?"

"This." She held up her notebook for her Kryptonian to see. "I read on this forum," she pointed at the tablet screen. "Someone gave measurements that works and what to do."

"This is great!" Kara enthused as she looked through her childish handwriting. "Baby listen." Closing the notebook she took her little hand gently, always aware that little Alex could not take her usual pressure she use with her Alex. "This is my friend Carter."

It was still unsure of how much little Alex knew, and the latest update from the D.E.O did not clear that up very much. Although, they didn't really have all the much to work with, they could only make speculations, very educated speculations. In any case half of the things that were sent to her screen did not make much sense, and Alex wasn't here to explain all the technical, and medical terms to her.

She missed Alex so much.

"Hi Alex." Carter smiled and offered a hand, just like big Alex did for him when they met. "I'm Carter."

"Hi," small hand took his firmly and shook. Wow, she had really strong handshake, he thought. Carter did not have many opportunity to interact with many children, other than his friends at school, and especially not anyone younger than him, his mother was an only child, and she didn't have that many friends. The only one that got along with her and had children same age as him was an Editor in Chief of a fashion magazine in New York, so he only ever met them a few times a year. He couldn't even say he got along with them, or not because he'd never spend any significant time with them.

"Carter is Ms. Grant's son." Kara squatted down and wrapped an arm around little Alex. "He's visiting."

And before anything else could be said, a familiar clicking and clacking of high heels came their way. Kara, of course, heard it long before the owner of the footsteps appear in their line of sight.

"Carter?" Cat seemed puzzled, and that was when Kara realized she didn't see Claire anywhere. Which meant that Carter came to CatCo Plaza by himself. Did he even call for the driver?

"Where is Claire?"

"I got out early, so I texted Claire that I'm coming to see you." The boy quickly went to his mother, and gave her a hug, he was less self conscious around Kara, even since he spent the day at the aquarium with her and Alex and his mom. He was more comfortable to express himself, at least in front of her, if not other people.

Cat frowned, but she decided that this was not the time to be scolding him, especially when he seemed so proud of himself, and he was here to see her. Besides, she was considering bringing him to see her, so he could meet little Alex. She thought he would've liked to meet her, a child who looked exactly like his favorite scientist. Ever since the trip that day, he'd been gushing about Alexandra, he took every opportunities to come to Catco if he thought that she would be here. Cat thought it was kind of sweet.

His interests in science also increased, as was his grades. It wasn't to say that he had no interest in it before, but it was more now. And Cat Grant was glad that she had allowed him that trip months ago, and even gladder that she went with him.

Well, her irritation at art department when she just came back from chewing out the entire department was already gone, due to the two children in her office, her employees should be so lucky. No one was getting fired today.

Now...

"Wow, so Kara got you a 3D Printer?" Carter exclaimed excitedly. "That is so cool!"

Little Alex was showing him some pictures on the tablet, and her son looked genuinely interested in what the little girl was showing him.

"Yup, and me and Winn are gonna put it together tonight." Her voice pitched a little higher in excitement.

It seemed that the two children were going to get along very well.

* * *

"She's so smart, mom." Carter chatter excitedly. "She could be in my class." He hopped up and down along with her longer strides. Soon she would be the one keeping up with him, Cat thought. "Maybe Alex and Kara can enroll her in my school? It would be so cool to have her with me!"

"Carter, honey." Cat had to slow him down a little, he was clearly making plans in his head as to what mischief they could get into together, as clearly demonstrated by the last two hours in her very own office, and a stack of papers now resided in her bottom drawers filled with plans and notes. It was surprising and unsurprising at the same time, she knew her son wasn't a very social person, he was more introverted, and had a difficult time making friends, and being her son did not help much.

Carter being instant friend with a little girl of five was not something she thought would happen, if that five year old was anyone other than someone from the Danvers family. If Alexandra, and Kara was anything to go by, they were an amazing stock.

Now, little Alex was with her sunny blonde assistant because of unfortunate circumstance, and how long it would last, she did not know.

Little Alex could be gone tomorrow for all she knew, and she didn't want her boy to get his hopes up and be disappointed by that.

"Alex was only gonna be here for a little while," she started, trying to choose her words carefully. "There's some sort of emergency with her family."

"Oh…" her son looked crestfallen. "Well, but she'll be here for a few days, won't she?"

"Possibly through the weekend?" She hoped.

"Oh, good, I wanna know how the 3d printer was going." He brightened up considerably.

Cat breathed a sigh to relief -

"Mom, can you get me one of those printers?"

\- Too soon.

* * *

a/n :

Sorry it took me a while to post this chapter.. had a tough couple of weeks, lost a pet, so I was a complete babbling mess for a couple of days, and took me a bit to get back to things and think happy thoughts.

Anyway, how's everyone doing?

Little Alex made a new friend, yes, Carter had to make an appearance, like someone predicted. Miss big Alex yet? I know Kara does. A short visit to the DEO and then an evening with Winn is up next. As always, comments are more than welcomed.


	4. it's a bonding exercise, really, it is!

**Getting to Know ( Your Inner Child )**

by **XavAcid**

Chapter 4 : it's a bonding exercise, really, it is!

They were heading out to the desert when little Alex piped up from the backseat once she noticed that they weren't going in the direction that was Kara's loft.

"Are we going to the base?"

"Yes, baby. We are going to get you check up and then get some updates." Kara turned down the music they'd been listening to answer. "We have to see Dr. Hamilton, you remember her?"

"Yeah, she works with me."

That surprised the Kryptonian a little, of course she knew that Alex recognized people, but it seemed spotty at best. Sometimes she said it like she knew and remembered everything, the other times… it was like she'd never met them before, or she only knew their names.

"You remember?"

She looked at the little brunette from the rear view mirror and saw her looking out the window with interest, so her answer was probably not something she thought about.

"Huh?" Little face turned, and their eyes met.

The Kryptonian gapped for a moment, apparently this was to be one of those time, before schooling her face when she saw little frown forming. "Oh, it's nothing. We'll go see Dr. Hamilton and you can visit with J'onn a little bit, ok?"

Little Alex just looked mildly interested, but she didn't look exactly happy. No doubt, remembering the day before when Dr. Hamilton ran series of tests on her. Kara couldn't really blame her, she didn't like getting poked and proded by a doctor either, unless that doctor name was Alexandra Danvers.

Shortly before they got into range of the desert base, the Kryptonian pulled to the side of the road, she didn't really need to worry about traffic, since the road was pretty much deserted. No one was going to travel out this way, unless they had something to do with the D.E.O. She wondered how they justify building the road that general populace never used.

Before a question could come out of a curious girl, Kara stepped out, and changed from her slack and sweater into her Supersuit with a quick spin. She then hopped back into the vehicle.

The cape was in the way, though, and she had to fight with it when she settled into the driver seat. Last thing she needed was to step on it when she was trying to break, or accelerate or something. Apparently her fighting with her very own cape was funny enough that it had her little charge giggling from the back seat.

The Kryptonian just laughed with her and started the car back up.

Good thing there were no other cars on the road.

* * *

Agent Luis and Agent Simmon was having a slow day, which was to be expected for ones low in the totem pole as the two of them; especially when they were on security duty like this. But they knew better than to slack off on the job.

Being in the middle of nowhere afforded them the sound of approaching vehicle before they could even see the actual vehicle itself. The two agents looked at each other and straightened up as soon as they heard the rumbling of a truck engine, just in time for the familiar black SUV came into view. They readied themselves and stepped up when the vehicle came to a stop at the gate.

It took only a few seconds for the plate to be scanned. Agent Luis went to the driver side window, he got the surprise of his life when window rolled down and the driver was not who he was expecting.

"Um… S.. Supergirl?"

If he was not mistaken, this was Agent Danvers' vehicle, so, why was Supergirl driving it. He had never seen or heard of Supergirl using the entrance. She had her very own entrance that could only be access from the air. A landing pad that was reinforced especially for her, according to the grapevine.

"Hi, is everything alright?" Her sunny disposition threw him off a little. He was so used to stone faces, or scowl from the other agents when they came through it was refreshing to see a smiling face, even if a bit disconcerting.

"Yes, ma'am… You're clear.. Um.. ma'am?" He paused when his fellow agent made a cutting gesture at him, completely with wide, frantic eye movements. It was not their business to be questioning their resident Kryptonian. And not when their resident Kryptonian driving the lead agent's vehicle. Even if there was a little girl sitting in the back seat.

There was a little girl in the back seat...

"What is it?" Large blue eyes widened just a bit more, looking as innocent and wholesome as they all heard Supergirl to be.

"Nothing, nothing ma'am you can go ahead." Agent Simmon stammered while his partner seemed to be struck mute, either by her smile or was too afraid to question her.

"Thank you." Supergirl called out and rolled the window back up.

She drove right in, leaving the two agents standing guard in dust.

* * *

"So, we are going to see J'onn first." Supergirl took little hand in her own and led the way into the base. She decided that it would be better for them to just bypass the command center, that way they could limit the amount of personal that knew about Alex's unfortunate incident.

"Do we have to see Dr. Hamilton?" Little voice questioned, she didn't like to see doctor, she felt fine. "I'm not sick."

"I'm afraid we have to," Supergirl spun around to face her little brunette, she crouched low to be on the same eye level. "It'll only be a little bit, then we can go home, and I'll ordered some food."

"And Winn can come over, so we can put together the printer, right?" She seemed perk up at the reminder of a new piece of machine waiting for her.

"Yes, he'll be over as soon as we get home, ok?"

Little Alex beamed up at her at the prospect of putting things together. Kara was looking forward to seeing that, she suspected that Winn would have his hands full with trying to build the machine and keeping a rein on the five year old genius. Or it could be the other way around, seeing how her hacker friend was practically vibrating out of his seat as their work day came to an end. And he was so disappointed that he could not get a head start while they made a trip to the D.E.O base.

Oh, the Kryptonian shuddered at the thought of little Alex found Winn already started without her. She had her recollection of Alex's reaction at someone jumping the gun to make a very good guess at what would happen. And it would not be pretty.

Although at five, her destructive power would be limited.

She hoped.

The Martian was having a busy day, he was down his second in command and he felt that very keenly. Especially when most of the work that she did landed on his desk, he also had to delegate most of her lab works- the ones that could be run without her direct supervision, and others were put on hold, and it really sunk in how much Agent Danvers did on her day to day work.

Not that he didn't know that already, he had every intention of grooming her for more responsibilities, and to replace him if necessary. But knowing the amount of work that he assigned to her and actually having it right in front of him was different, especially when he considered all her other side projects and missions.

And to top that off, Supergirl had been texting him numerous times to ask about their progress, or lack thereof. He knew that she was impatient, that the progress they made, were so small that it may as well not be any progress at all, and their resident hero was not used to that.

Especially now that the one person that could help them make the quickest progress was the one that could not help.

At least they had Dr. Wells, they did recruite her mainly because she was so familiar with weirdness that they dealt with on the regular basis. While Agent Danvers was unable to help, Dr. Helena Wells was the next best person he could think of to be in charge of investigating the device. On the plus side, she brought with her wealth of knowledge that could very well give them other ways to fix the situation they were in. If nothing else, they could perhaps borrow something from her old job, but until then, they still had to find the criminal that were collecting these alien artifacts.

There could be something more dangerous, and there were enough people that liked to get their hands on such things that the D.E.O could hardly let it slide. They needed to know who were collecting these things and where they were from. None of those were the things that Supergirl could fly in and punch away. Well, maybe she could after.

Now he felt the pinch behind his eyes, he'd long understood that this was what human called headache, and he got it more often in the last year than he had in the last ten years ever since the Danvers set foot in the D.E.O. With quick rub at the bridge of his nose, he reached blindly into his secret snack drawer to grab a small pack of oreo. He was running low.

He was going to have to grab some more very soon, or he would not last this latest crisis.

And he would need something to bribe the five year old with. And their resident Kryptonian.

On that note maybe he could go and get more supplies now, before they arrived. A chirp in his ear piece alerted him of the incoming message. He didn't have the time now, since the message was from the command center, relaying the message from the agents at the gate that their resident superhero was on the permiss.

He quickly closed his snack drawer, maybe he had time to run to Alex's office. He was sure she had a stash of snacks he could pilfer. There had to be a pack or two of Choco, he was sure.

And he was back to his office just in time for the two Danvers to arrive.

"Ah, Supergirl." J'onn in Hank Henshaw's disguise looked up from his paperworks the moment the duo came through the door to his office. "Hello Alex."

"Hi, J'onn." The Kryptonian smiled widely as she ushered little brunette into the room.

"Hi, J'onn" Their littlest lead agent piped up.

J'onn had to crack a smile at the adorable five year old, he tried to keep things professional while they were at the D.E.O, although for the Danvers, he allowed himself to show more affection than he ever would with anyone else, they were like his daughters. So he let himself come around the desk and gave the little girl a hug.

Soon it was Alex's little hand in his larger one as he chatted with her about her day.

Supergirl trailed behind and watched quietly with a smile, she only filled in whatever information when the little brunette turned to ask her for confirmation of certain things. The image to was too sweet for her to interrupt or interject anything more.

On the way they encountered quite a few agents, most of them did a double take when they saw the director leading a small child by the hand. None said a word and only gave the trio a polite nod in greeting.

The Kryptonian supposed that working at the D.E.O meant strange things were the norm, and most of them probably saw weirder things than their normally stern Director smiling and chatting with a five year old. At least he wasn't using baby talk. That would weirded everyone out and might cause some of them to think that someone was disguising themselves as their fearless leader.

She wondered if the rest of the base knew this adorable little five year old in Nightmare before Christmas hoodie and black hi top sneakers walking along with their boss was their genius second in command.

And before she knew it they walked through medical bay and arrived in front of Dr. Hamilton's office.

"Oh hello Supergirl," Dr. Hamilton came out greeted them with a smile, which got bigger when she turned it on their little lead agent. "And how are you Alex?"

Here the little brunette seemed suddenly reluctant, she turned her big hazel eyes to the resident Martian, then Kryptonian. With a nod from each of them, she puffed out a little- it was all so adorable, that Kara just wanted to pick her up and cuddle her- and said "I'm good, thank you."

Gently she reached for her small shoulder and guided her into the office, the Martian and Kryptonian remained just outside the door.

With Agent Danvers being one of the best agents, and an alpha team leader, Dr. Hamilton often interact with her. Most of the medical techs were intimidated by Agent Alex Danvers, and she would use that to her advantage, and would get away with not getting her injuries checked out. She would only wave them off, and none dare contradict her. So, as one of the senior medical staffs, Dr. Hamilton had to step in if only to save her staffs from quitting.

They also corroborated in various projects. And the most recent one was when Supergirl got turned into a doll size Kryptonian- and that was only the most recent one. When she was recruited to the D.E.O she never thought things would be this interesting.

At least, Agent Danvers was adorable at this age, and whip smart, too.

"Alright," she guided the little brunette to sit in of of the chair, while she sat in the other. "How was your day today?"

* * *

As soon as they left the D.E.O Supergirl made a quick call to her friend; at the insistence of her young brunette, but only after she called for some Chinese food. So that they did not have to wait long before the food arrived, she was starving. And she was pretty sure that Winn would be waiting by the front door by the time they arrived.

He was pretty eager to get started.

Actually, he even asked if he could just get a head start while they were going to the base.

That was met with a death stare from her little brunette.

Even as a little five year old, Alex could still scare the stuffing out of Winn.

It was a little disconcerting to the Kryptonian that even as an adorable child, Alex could still give that particular look that sent Winn running. She'd always thought that it was the D.E.O training that equipped the now littlest Danvers with that talent, apparently it wasn't. Though, she could've sworn that she'd never seen that look on her before when they were growing up together. At least nothing so scary.

She tilted her head slightly to look at the little brunette child in the back, ' _well, or maybe Winn was just scared of Alex in general'._

After she finished with the call to their favorite Chinese place, she had to do a quick calculation of their amount, since Alex was little now and she couldn't eat as much as she did, but she still had to factor Winn into it. Still, her own and little Alex, plus Winn's wasn't as much as she would order when it was just the two of them. She didn't even have to order a third helping of potstickers.

Then Kara made a pit stop and once again spun herself back into her regular clothes and continued their track back home. The little brunette once again reminded her to make a call to Winn.

"I'll bet he's gonna be there even before the food." The Kryptonian joked once she hung up from the call. Her friend was indeed pretty eager to get start. Giggles from the back was the agreement she received.

She was glad, even though little Alex tolerated being poked and prodded by Dr. Hamilton, and she was being so good about it, she didn't complain once - Kara would know, she kept an ear trained on her the entire time afterall - it didn't mean that she wasn't annoyed by it.

She'd decided against stopping at Alex's office, and her lab was still under quarantine. Kara had no idea who was the scientist that was going to figure this out now that Alex was out of commission, and almost could slap herself - and she would've if she thought it wasn't going to weird little Alex out- that she did not ask J'onn while he was there.

But she trusted him to put the best people on it. They were going to fix it soon, and everything was going to be alright. Alex would be back to her old self and they were going to go on that dinner.

"Kara, I found some things here on the forum," little voice piped up from the back, broke her out of her increasingly depressing thought. It appeared that little Alex didn't stop researching at all, and the closer they got to the loft, the more excited she became. She even told Dr. Hamilton all about the printer that was waiting for her to assemble earlier. The look on the good doctor when they came out of her office was almost funny.

"Baby, maybe you should wait until we get home before you start reading on the tablet." She didn't even hear her pull out the tablet.

She glanced up to meet large dark eyes via the rear view mirror and smiled when the little girl put her tablet down with a huff. At least little Alex was listening.

 _Imagine telling Alex to do something she didn't wanna do_ , she thought to herself, _yeah, not happening._

* * *

"Hey!" Kara super sped over to the door and opened it in one smooth motion. It was Winn.

"Hey, Kara!" He quickly stepped inside, with a large tool bag in hand. "Hi Alex!"

"Winn!"

"I brought tools!" He hitched up the bag on his shoulder a little for them to see, "and some ice cream!"

"Yay!" The five year old ran out from deep inside the loft to take the bag of ice cream. "Hi Winn." She didn't forget to say before heading over to the kitchen.

Winn opened his mouth to say something but the little girl was decidedly out of earshot now.

"She's excited." Kara pushed her friend into the room and closed the door in one smooth motion. "I thought she was gonna fall asleep on the way back, but she perked right up when we got home. And what's in the bag?"

"Oh, this?" He hefted up the bag on his shoulder. "Tools, in case."

"You know that Alex has a bunch of tools here, right?" Kara gestured at the open box sitting in the middle of the coffee table, there was a box of tools beside it, also a very sleek laptop, one that Winn knew was the best secret organization could make.

Winn pouted at her. "I just thought it's better to be prepared." He dropped everything completely and practically leap at the box as soon as he was in sight of it. "Oh my God, Kara! This is Mk3!" He exclaimed loudly as soon as he saw the prints on the box. _Not fair!_

"Um… really? I don't…" The Kryptonian looked a little confused. She didn't really know the different, she just tried to pick the best for her Alex. She would've gone for that other one that cost like four times as much had she had the money, and Winn didn't stop her. He stated that Alex would appreciate the experience of putting a kit together. Besides, they would need to tinker with it sooner or later.

"Yeah, didn't you notice that it was more expensive?" He wrapped both arms around the box, looking in all the world like he wanted to just run away with it. Of course, he knew that he would not get even a step forward before he would be caught, probably by Alex, tackled him to the ground, he imagined a manly scream echoing the hallway as she maimed him with her pinky. He really didn't think Alex would miss it that much if he ran with it. She has access to a bigger and better printer at the D.E.O anyway. But she would never let him get away with it

Kara rolled her eyes, seriously, how was she going to know that? She just ordered whatever the newest.

Winn had been waiting anxiously since he clocked out from CatCo. He was planning on just ran home, grabbed his tool bag and just came right over to Kara's loft. His friend put a stop to that plan, of course, she had to go to the D.E.O desert base for a check up. So he had to cool his heels for a while, but he came over as soon as he got her text that they were on their way back.

Hey, he actually stopped to buy some ice cream.

Probably a good thing, too. Neither of them were giving him a hard time for being so eager.

"I ordered some Chinese, did you eat?" Kara asked over her shoulder as she went to stop little Alex from digging into the ice cream and ruin her appetite.

"Um.. yeah, I had some tacos earlier." He reluctantly pried his hand hand off of the box, finger by finger. He really really didn't want to let go of the box. "But I can still eat." He would never say no to food.

Then Kara waited till he pried his little finger away from the box before leading him over to the dining table. That was new, he had been to many many game nights, and they never really once sit at the dining table, except that time during Thanksgiving that he did not want to mention. Most of the time, as far as he could tell, they would just sit in front of the tv and eat.

And before they could set out utensils, the doorbell rang once again. This time it was the food.

* * *

"Ok, this has to be 100 mm." Winn handed over the digital caliper so that Alex could make the measurement. He thought that he might have to do the majority of the work with little five year old Alex handed him things here and there, and not being much help at all. He was wrong, so very wrong.

He knew she was a genius, Kara told him about it enough time already. But a genius Alex Danvers as he met her, and an adorable five year old? This was when he really appreciated how very smart she was.

While he did the research before hand, well, he did it as soon as he knew that he was going to help her build it, he didn't really look closely at the photos of the box that she showed him. A mistake really, or he would've known that it was MK3. He also assumed that little Alex would be looking at the building instruction of an MK2s, she was not.

Two heads turned at the sound of Kara taking a picture.

"You're taking pictures?"

"Well," Kara looked a little sheepish. "Carter's been texting me, and he was asking for some pictures."

Little Alex frowned a little, but dismissed it. She was much more interested in finishing the task in front of her.

The truth was that Kara was texting J'onn, she wanted to know who was working on the case, and if she could help speed it up in anyway. She didn't get the chance to stop by the science laps while they were there earlier, because she did not want to leave her precious little brunette while she was with Dr. Hamilton. Besides, she could not get anymore information out of the Martian about who he was putting in charge.

Maybe if she visit the person to get the update directly he wouldn't have to be dealing with her texts right now. The good doctor took quite a bit of sample from little Alex, with the bandaid on her arm and cheek swaps, they should be getting some sort of results back now, shouldn't they?

She wasn't going to bother them that much. Just every five minutes or so.

Because she'd learned from Alex that a lot of things could happen in five minutes, and she needed the updates!

But then Carter texted, asking- politely, of course - if they were building the printer now, and that he would like to see their progress if it was alright. So Kara replied to him and took some pictures. The texts she got back was clearly him very excited, and after this she probably should ready herself for ordering another one of this for Ms. Grant.

She watched the two - her hacker friend and her little brunette- hundled over the pieces, dark heads nearly butted against one another, parts of the machine arranged in some sort of weird order on the coffee table, boxes were strewing about, the video of someone building the same printer on the TV screen.

She also took a quick look at the booklet that they got with the kit, it was so… details. Apparently the one online was much much more details, with the comments and such from other people, or so Winn told her. More instructions were always good.

Little Alex looked so adorable in her black, skeleton glow in the dark pajamas, she was holding one of the parts out to Winn, while pointing out on the screen. They were mostly arguing about what needed to go where, and somehow, little Alex was winning.

For a minute there, the Kryptonian considered jumping in with them, then decided against it. She didn't want to get between them while they were arguing about wires, it was more fun just watching.

And documenting, of course. With lots and lots of pictures.

* * *

Winn was having a good time, he didn't really know what he was expecting, but this wasn't what he envisioned. He thought he was going to order the printer at the same time Kara did, and perhaps build it simultaneously with Alex one night or something like that. Not building with little Alex, but to be fair, he never imagined meeting Alex while she was being five year old, either.

He also got the be the witness to a monumental occasion.

He'd had dinner with them before, usually on game nights, the Danvers duo would negotiate before they would order while ignoring the rest of them, and even then, he saw Kara stole food off of Alex's plate numerous times even though she still had plenty on her own plate. And he saw the agent just turned a blind eye. Everytime.

And now he got to see his friend surrendered the last potsticker to the littlest Danvers, it was kind of hilarious, really. Especially that forlorn look she sported when little Alex put it in her mouth and happily chewed.

That was something he never thought he would ever see, ever!

James made that mistake, like all of them made, with the exception of Alex, of trying to take more than one potsticker when they had their games night. Kara nearly fried them with her heat vision, he remembered she singed the hair on James Olson's arm, and that was when she had a crush on him.

And Alex? Alex just smirked and gave them that, 'I told you so' look while continue to eat her portion. They did notice that she got two potstickers from the beginning.

None of them ever thought that the Sunny, and kind Kara Danvers would react that way about food. She wasn't even apologetic about it afterward, it was not exactly what he imagined her reaction would be. Well, he didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't her trying to fry them with her heat vision.

Alex just rolled her eyes when they complaint about it later.

"Here you put zip tie here," Winn gently directed little Alex to tie the bearing to the extruder carriage.

"That looks almost like a face," she commented while little hands busily pulling the tie tight.

"It does, doesn't it!"

"Yeah, this is the nose." Alex little finger pointed at the little posts timing belt looped around and locked in place. She allowed Winn to cut of the excess plastic tie.

"I think a bolt goes in there." Winn turned to fish out a long m3 bolt from the bag. "Maybe we could do the cable chain for this later, huh." He chatted conversationally as he gathered up the wires, which little brunette once again graciously allowed him to do.

Alex found her hands and fingers a little less coordinated than she thought they should be, and it felt weird, all the wires weren't hard to do, some were even easier because of her smaller fingers. Winn's hands were too big, she thought, and he got too nervous for her liking, but she found it easier to just let him plug things into their respective places. His jittery fingers by her hands were just annoying. She wanted to bite his finger the next time he did it.

She wasn't a baby, she knew how to read, and all these wires had nice clear tags on them. There was no way she could mistaken anything. But Winn fluttering and twittering when she grabbed the wire was annoying. Kara told her earlier that sometimes it was easier to just let him do it. So he wouldn't give himself a heart attack, how could someone give themselves a heart attack with it, she wasn't sure, but she didn't want to know, either.

She kind of like Winn, so she wanted him to be alive for her to poke fun at.

And he was afraid of her, the big her?

It was all so vague, like when Dr. Hamilton talked to her, she knew Dr. Hamilton- Abby, and J'onn, he was big and green, but he wasn't big and green all the time, and he was not big and green today. Things were familiar, and - not.

What she did wonder about but for moments here and there was, where were her parents. She trusted Kara, knew Kara. She also felt that she should be here, instead of back home, in Midvale. But she wasn't worried about it.

And she liked when Kara fuzzed over her, like when she came out of Dr. Hamilton's office after she had her blood drawn, the Kryptonian asked if she was hurt, which it didn't. She even get extra hugs and kisses. She got extra scoop of ice cream as soon as Kara saw the bandaid on her arm.

This was fun.

Mom and dad would never let her stay up this late…

* * *

"Kara?"

"Yeah?" The Kryptonian looked up from her phone, Carter stopped texting her a while ago, she assumed that either he fell asleep or his mother caught him texting late and made him go to sleep. So, she started chasing down who could give her information.

So far, no one answered her at all.

Even Agent Vasquez.

"I think Alex is done for the night." Her friend gestured at the small body slumping by the coffee table, face down. She was out for the count.

That was… unsurprising.

It was nearing midnight.

"Oh… I should get her to bed, huh." Kara tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out the best way to move her little brunette without waking her.

"Are you almost done?"

"Well, only a few things, some wire management, and run the calibration and stuff." Winn rubbed his eyes, they were getting dry and gritty. He really wanted to finish it, they were so close.

"Do you wanna finish it, and crash here tonight?" It would be kind of cruel to make him go back home this late, and she couldn't really fly him home. She couldn't just leave Alex alone, not even for a few minutes.

Winn stretched his back, wincing when he heard his own spin cracked. He really really needed to stop slouching, he was not a Kryptonian, slouching was bad for his back. He so envious of Kara right now, she could slouch all she wanted, and it wouldn't really have any long last thing effect.

He was getting tired, but there was also very few things to finish up. Eyeing the couch, he figured it looked comfortable enough.

"I'll grab you some pillow and blankets." Kara already guessed what her friend's answer would be. He was too excited over the printer to just leave for the night to come back tomorrow evening. Not when he was so close, as he said it.

"Thanks, Kara." Well, it was only one night, he'd pulled plenty of all nighter before.

Gently, she picked up the little girl after calculating the best angle which to jostle Alex the least.

Would it be like this if they had children?

The thought made her unexpectedly happy.

Cradling small body to her chest. She told her friend she'd be back with pillow and blankets.

He barely looked up from the machine.

* * *

Kara woke up with the sun shining into her face, and normally that would be great, better than great, she did get most of her energy from the sun, after all, but not today. Today she just wanted to borrow back under her comforter and went to sleep. But one small foot stuck under chin made it impossible. How did they end up in this position, she had no idea. Alex did not move around much when she sleep, apparently little Alex was not the same, seeing how she ended up upside down, and her foot was where her head was supposed to be.

So she carefully extricated herself, and arranged little body right side up and left the bed, that was when she noticed the noise. Weird squeaking noises.

"What is that noise?" The alien grumbled as she stumbled through the door of her bedroom, blonde hair sticking up every which way. She must be more exhausted that she originally thought, because noises like this wouldn't allow her to sleep otherwise.

How did Winn-

Who was flat on his back, blanket barely covering him. He was dressed in a pair of sweats and t-shirt she lend him, there was drool on the side of his chin. And snoring… the sound of snoring competing with the squeaking.

The printer was chucking away, creating quite a bit of squeaking noise. So, that was where the noise came from. Did they forget to lube those bearings?

"It's done? Cool!" Little Alex shot pass her straight for the machine.

She didn't even hear her get up.

Her hacker friend snorted once and sat straight up. "Flying monkeys!"

 _Man, it's gonna be a long day._

* * *

Bonus :

Kara was reaching for the last piece of pot stickers with her chopsticks while still chewing on one. They were so good, they were the best of food Earth had to offer she was sure. If it was the only thing left for her to eat for the rest of her life she would be happy.

A small huff was the only thing that stopped her from popping it into her mouth. So the Kryptonian swallowed her mouth full and turned to see a pouting five year old, eyeing the potsticker speared at the tip of her chopsticks.

Poor Winn who barely got anything that wasn't on his carton that he first grabbed, looked back and forth between them. He thought for sure that his Kryptonian friend would refuse to give up the potstickers, they were her favorite after all, and he had yet to see her giving it up to anyone.

But after only a heartbeat she handed over the last potsticker to the little girl, even as her eyes watering up.

Right, he'd seen everything.

* * *

a/n : It took me a while to get this done, I hope you guys didn't get bored of waiting, and I do hope you find this entertaining. Kara is trying her best. Alex is having fun. So is Winn. I've been distracted by a new printer, or rather, figuring out what I did wrong. Tinkering is half the fun, I'm telling myself this. MK3 is a newest printer by Prusa, great stuff, I wish I have the fund for it. More things will be happening by next one, Supergirl is waiting to hit something.

Thank you for reading, comments are awesome and let me get the idea off what works and what could be improved. Favs are great, too. You guys have a great one!


	5. it's a distraction,

**( Getting to Know ) Your Inner Child**

by **XavAcid**

chapter 5 : it's a distraction, a fineart mastered by Alex Danvers

Kara arrived at the CatCo Plaza a little later than she would've liked, but it was something she couldn't help, she was not used to having to navigate the early morning traffic, and to have to wrangle a squirmy five year old who was just so fascinated with her new machine out the door. At least little Alex wasn't whiny. She was able to reason with her after a few minutes. After she promised to let Alex bring the things Winn printed out, which was a total of three things.

A frog, a dog, and a castle.

Winn begged off the breakfast when she was setting up to make some, he had to run home to shower and change. Showing up to work in his day old clothes and unshaven would not go over well with their boss. He did promise to come over in the evening again, to fiddle some more with the printer.

Kara felt a little bad when she arrived at work and found her usually early friend didn't get to work yet. Maybe she should've offer to fly him home, it'd only take a few minutes, Alex could handle a few minutes on her own?

"Winn's late?" Little Alex looked toward the desk nearby and asked as she walked calmly alongside her Kryptonian.

"Well, he had to run home to shower and change first." She gently herded little Alex to her own desk, Ms. Grant wasn't in yet and she still needed to get her latte. Quickly she took the hoodie off of the five year old, and paused, the hoodie was so small.

"I have to run out for a few minutes, ok?"

Little Alex nodded when she got herself situated, a notebook open, and tablet out. The little girl gently placed her castle print on the desk prominently.

"Would you like some chocolate shake?" Kara turned the chair around and kneeled in front of her.

"Yes, please." Little smile warmed her to her toes.

Yes, she knew that she shouldn't be giving little Alex too much sweet, but that smile… She just couldn't help herself. Besides, of all the other times that Alex gave her portions of her food, kept sweets in her bag, all the way back when they were teens, a little chocolate shakes here and there was nothing; even if it would make her bounce for the rest of the morning. Kara was more than happy to deal with it.

Well, and she would make sure that it was the least amount of sugar in her drink.

Just as she ran out Winn was just arriving. "Hey, Kara."

"Hey,Winn, gotta run."

* * *

From behind she could hear Alex calling Winn over.

Kara had the fright of her life when she came back.

Her desk was now occupied, not only by the five year old, but also by her very own boss, Cat Grant.

"Ms. Grant?"

Her boss turned to look at her, one hand out, Kara quickly placed the center of the sun hot latte in her hand. She didn't think she was away for the that long, but apparently she was. But it wasn't her fault there was a pile up on the highway. She'd done her best to get it sorted as quickly as she could. There was a couple of casualties, but only one critical.

"I heard you had a nice night last night." Cat rose from the chair smoothly. "Carter could barely go to sleep, what with all the pictures and text messages you two were exchanging." While her voice was biting, the Kryptonian could see the mirt in her green eyes. "He was quite tired this morning."

"Um… sorry about that. He was so excited and asked for some photos so I sent him some."

"Of course he was," Cat rolled her eyes, she only had to tell him to go to see three times, and even after that she was pretty sure that he hid his phone under the blanket and continued to text with sunny Danvers.

Her son was so happy to share all the photos with her over breakfast this morning. She also had a feeling that a request for the same exact machine was coming, if not soon, then it would definitely be for Christmas.

In the meantime little Alex was looking back and forth between the two of them with a frown. Winn was edging away from them quietly. She was chatting with Winn about what they could do next and he was showing her all the colors and type of filaments she could get, Alex was starting to make a list when Cat arrived.

Alex was so happy to show her what they made last night.

It took forever, but she was sure she could improve it, they could find a way to make it go faster. Definitely something she would talk to Winn about, he could help.

Then Cat came in and little Alex was thrill to show her everything she brought. She also asked a lot of questions about it, and Alex was more than happy to answer all of them.

* * *

Cat certainly expected to see the little brunette when she set foot onto her floor this morning, she was just a little surprised that Sunny Danvers was nowhere to be found. She'd consciously allowed for more time because she knew that morning routine needed time to establish with a child, even one as smart as little Alex obviously was.

And they were probably going to bed very late last night.

She was only going to see what little Alex was up to when she got in and saw her sitting at her Sunshine of an assistant's desk, with Winnifred. They seemed to be planning something. But then the five year old presented her with a little frog.

Needless to say, she was pulled into a wild tale of how they were putting a machine together.

How did she make it sound so interesting, she didn't know. She chalked it up to little Alex being so excited about it. The little girl certainly resemble Alexandra, even in her manners. Listening to her go on and on about something that clearly interested her was a joy, to say the least. Cat wondered if these things were genetic, if so the Danvers would make excellent teachers.

And so, they had a little show and tell while Sunny Danvers was out presumably getting her a latte, and probably something sugary for herself and hopefully something with less sugar for her young charge here.

Cat smiled and asked appropriate questions when the rhythm allowed, little Alex was telling her how they calibrated the printer and she was the one picking out the model. The Queen of All Media was impressed, the girl certainly sounded like she understood what needed to be done before the model could be created.

Cat was pretty sure that the sweater hobbit was the one doing the 'slicing' and starting of the print. Whatever 'slicing' meant.

"It took 8 hours for this." Little hands held up the castle for Cat to inspect. "It is pre-sliced, though."

"I'm sure you can do better." Cat praised.

"Yup." The confident nod was so adorable that she just wanted to grab her up and squeeze her.

"Ms. Grant?"

Ah, there's her Sunshine personified assistant, with the lifesaver drink in hand.

"I heard you had a nice night last night?" She reached out to accept the drink and rose from the chair, then considering ordering some new chairs, they were not all that comfortable. Then she commented on how tired her son was this morning. Carter was tired, but he was much too excited to be cranky, a fact she was thankful for. She was also glad that he seemed to find something that interested him. She'd noticed that he seemed bored with his study and his science club lately.

For a smart boy like him, being bored with his schooling was not a good thing. But he hadn't said anything to her, not yet.

She waited a few more minutes, with the pretense of looking through the schedule for the day while Sunny D. gave a small -thank goodness - chocolate shake to the little girl.

"Would you like to come tell me more about the frog?"

Little brunette finally looked away from her temporary guardian to her. It took her a few more seconds to look between them and finally got a nod from Sunny Danvers and gathered up her things. Cat took a few things for her and led her away.

"You can rearrange my meetings better, Keira." She tossed over her shoulder before entering her own office.

* * *

"You found it!" Kara nearly shot out of her chair.

She was going through the layout from the art department for Ms. Grant when the call came in. It was a quiet morning, so far, and there was enough work to keep her occupied and her mind busy.

Until a call came in from the D.E.O.

She expected some development, something to help return Alex back to her adult body, or timeline, or anything really. What she didn't expect was this particular information.

They found the lair.

And her little outburst had everyone on the floor looking at her, including Ms. Grant, and the little brunette. Kara quickly straighten up and lower her voice. Her boss looked like she was about to come out and check what was going on.

' _Yes, the beta team is on its way.'_ Vasquez voice sounded a little far away, a little out of breath.

"Where?"

' _Supergirl…'_

"I'm going, give me the address."

' _Ma'am-'_

"I am going." She put as much authority into her voice as possible without raising it. A trick she'd learned from Alex, and she felt a small pang, she wasn't as good as the older Danvers, but she would be. Alex would teach her more.

' _I'll send you the coordination.'_ Was the reply after a long pause.

Kara shot out of her seat with a stack of paper - something she just grabbed without looking - her mind searched for an excuse. "I'm gonna go make some copies," was what she tossed over her shoulder to whoever was looking and listening.

And she ran out, before her boss could come out and question her action, she left Winn to pick up the fallen notes and stationery in her wake.

* * *

Alex frowned when she saw Kara fled from her desk.

"Copy room run."

Little head turned back to Cat Grant, the woman was giving her a reassuring smile when she explained to Alex that Kara sometimes had to run to the copy room for some printouts and other paperworks.

Alex didn't think so, especially when she saw how Winn was looking at her wide eyed. She decided that Cat didn't need to know that. She'd been keeping an eye out for Kara, and kept Cat occupied for most of the day. It honestly wasn't very hard, she was very cute, after all.

* * *

"Supergirl." The Director narrowed his eyes, he knew she was coming, knew even before he told Vasquez to let her know of the development. He knew she was coming, but that didn't mean he was happy about it. "And where is Alex?" He asked as soon as she landed close enough.

The team had been setting up, various agents were getting in position, all they needed was the order from their commander. No they weren't really wait for their resident Super, although the majority of them knew that she was coming to join them. If it was about Agent Danvers, there was no way their Superhero would not come along.

"With Ms. Grant."

J'onn did a double take, "is that a good idea?"

"She's fine, Ms. Grant loves her." There was a tiny pout there, and J'onn gave her a curious look, but he decided that it could wait and signaled for the agents to move in since Supergirl was here and everyone was in positions.

Like locust, the agents descended on the seemingly decrepit warehouse at the edge of the dock.

Supergirl was surprised that the place didn't just fall apart at a particular strong gust of wind, and she was very careful in her landing when she got inside.

To find that the inside was just as decrepit as the outside. And pretty much empty, with the exception of some crates and one lone criminal, who was most likely left to guarde whatever they stored at the place. He didn't even put up a fight - a very smart move on his part, since there was no conceivable way for him to get out of it alive. He even dropped to the ground as soon as he saw a flash of red.

And as the D.E.O agents removed the man out of the warehouse, the Kryptonian gave the whole place a sweep with her X-Ray vision. There was no bomb, no weapon that she could see or identify and she said as much.

J'onn ordered his team to take everything back to the D.E.O. They could process everything back where the roof would not come down around their ears.

"That was pretty underwhelming." Supergirl pouted. The other agents nearby tried very hard not to gawk, and when the Director shot a look their way, they dispersed quickly.

J'onn wanted to roll his eyes, but being the director, he thought it was inappropriate to do so in front of the other agents.

"I was expecting some fight." Yes, she did, she felt like she needed an excuse to smack them around a little, for what they did to Alex. She didn't expect to see only one man, and one that quick to surrender at that.

"Well, Supergirl-"

"I better go, before Ms. Grant starts looking for me." She quickly said, after looking at her wrist, as if she was wearing a watch. There was no watch. And she was gone in a flash.

J'onn pinched the bridge of his nose before calling for his agents to move faster. He really, really missed Alex.

* * *

"Winn." Kara jogged back to her desk with a stack of papers on her hands. "What did I miss?"

"Not much, Ms. Grant didn't even look for you." He motioned toward the glass office with his head, Kara just wanted to roll her eyes, Winn liked to think that he was discreet, but he really wasn't. "She didn't even step out to yell at anyone."

She looked in and saw Ms. Grant with her phone in one hand while still had her eyes on what little Alex was doing. It was kind of adorable, and that concentration in her little face - Kara just wanted to go in there and scoop her up.

Which she might have to do soon now that she noticed the time.

 _Oh shoot! Had she been gone that long?_

Quickly, she settled behind her desk, intending to get as much done as she could before lunch time roll along. Undoubtedly she would have to race out to get something for Ms. Grant and then maybe she could take little Alex out for some cheeseburger or something. Then after that she was going to check in with the D.E.O and see if they found anything of use.

* * *

"Dr. Wells."

"Yes, Director?"

Dr. Helena Wells was pretty used to amount of weird stuffs that came across her desk, this time was no different, what different was that fact that she was dealing directly with the Director himself. Normally she would be dealing with one of the agents in command center, that or Dr. Danvers herself, although the last one was probably not feasible at the moment, seeing how she was in a bit of predicament.

An understatement.

This particular situation was something she'd expected while working at the warehouse. She didn't think she was going to encounter something like this again, and only deal with the strangeness of the outer space. Well, she was wrong.

The good thing was she was trusted to do her very best without anyone second guessing her, and that was probably because she was a big help - if she said so herself - while Supergirl was otherwise unavailable due to her diminutive size.

"How quickly can you and your team catalog everything we found?" He rubbed his temple tiredly, "I have no doubt that Supergirl would be in contact soon and wanting to know everything. I'd like to have some sort of update for her."

"We're doing it as quickly as we can, Director." There was some sort of a list, and hopefully she could figure out the name on the list to the actual piece of artifact. This was also on top of the things that she was looking at from Dr. Danvers' lab as well and hopefully the list would give her some sort of clue as to what caused the deaging of Dr. Danvers. She was also about to do another level of radiation detector, just to see if they could find something, anything that could be helpful.

Now she also needed to send someone to Dr. Danvers' lab and see if they could recreate the circumstance of the activation of the artifact. They weren't even sure which one caused it, there were several of them. There was so much she needed to get done.

"I understand, have you ever encounter an artifact that reduced the age of a person encountered it while you were at the other agency?"

"Not the ones that I personally encounter, no, Director." She paused, "but if nothing here pan out I could look into the archive of the warehouse?"

"Yes," he nodded minutely "do that."

"And Sir, can I borrow Agent Bering?" She spoke up when he started to leave. "She may be able to help with some of the search."

"Take whoever you need Dr. Well." He waved his hand and gave her his permission before continued on his way out.

"Thank you, sir." She said after his retreating back.

* * *

"So, what happened? Did you find something?" Winn took the opportunity to ask as soon as they got a moment of inactivity. "Anything?"

"Yeah, we found some… stuff." But Kara didn't elaborate.

"Well?" Really, she could just tell him without him having to prompt her.

"We don't know what yet, I mean there was one guy there, and a bunch of stuff. I didn't even get to punch anything." She pouted. "I really wanna punch something." Kara could only huff, she was frustrated, but this was neither the place nor the time.

This would normally be when she would make a call to Alex, because Alex made everything better. She would patiently listen to her whined and then offered some advice or encouragement, of course there were times that Alex could be little shit and just teased the hack out of her as well.

"Aw.. that sucks, I'm sorry." Winn offered in sympathy, then he quickly turned around back to his station.

"Wha.." Kara started to ask when she heard her boss.

"Keira!"

Like an energizer bunny, or something poked her in the butt, the Kryptonian hopped up and raced into the fish bowl her boss called an office. "Yes, Ms. Grant!"

"There you are.'' As if she didn't keep an ear out for Sunny Danvers' return. "It's about lunch time I believe.'' She tilted her head toward little Alex, who was looking at the both of them with a tiny frown.

"Oh, that is right.'' She looked at her watch. ''You must be hungry.''

"Salad.'' Cat said, ''make sure there's burger on top.''

"Right, burger on top," her sunny assistant murmured as she wrote her order down. "Alex?"

"I wanna go." The little brunette sounded very firm.

"Yes, ok." Kara said quickly, she didn't want to chance her boss saying anything, besides, she'd been running around all morning, and it felt like she'd neglected the little brunette.

Alex had spent the morning distracting Cat from noticing when Kara had to run out for whatever emergencies that needed her. Part was of her was enjoying sharing her activities, 3d printing was interesting, if slow, very, very slow. Well, it wasn't as if she didn't know that already, D.E.O had their own print farm for prototyping whatever tech or weapons that they needed, but she was only ever there to start, or pick up what pieces she needed. It was different when she was the one waiting personally for pieces to be done.

Those pieces were also purely functional, while this was for fun.

She vaguely recalled wanting one for her own personal use, and she thought she'd mentioned it to her Kryptonian a couple of times, she just didn't get the chance to actually order one for herself. Or maybe she was planning, things were hazy at times, and she couldn't really tell.

But before she could chase the thought down, Cat was ordering her lunch.

Lunch, yes, lunch sounded good.

And when Cat stopped her weird - _burger on top of salad? What? Was that an actual item on the menu?_ \- Kara was looking at her… _Oh, lunch?_

"I'm going with you." Yup, she was going. She wanted to see what was on the menu, and she needed to know if the D.E.O found anything that could be of use, if anyone was working on her problem. Couldn't talk about that with other people within earshot.

"Ok."

Little Alex could see Cat frowning, but she went and closed the tablet's cover, squaring some of her stuff on the coffee table away neatly. Kara was already by the door, with her hoodie in hand.

"We'll be back," she waved at Cat Grant and ran out the door.

* * *

a/n : Yes, yes, I know.. still small, but little!Alex is too cute to let go so soon, right?

Thank you guys for being patient with me, I appreciated all the comments and favs, comments are great, I tell ya.


	6. we're moving in the right direction

**( Getting to Know ) Your Inner Child**

by **XavAcid**

chapter 6 : we're moving in the right direction, at a glacier pace...

"Hey Kara!"

"Oh hi Claire, Carter." Kara smiled up at one Mr. Grant and his babysitter brightly even as she wondered if they were supposed to be at the office. She glanced down at her watch, didn't Carter have some kind of after school thing today?

Normally, Kara wasn't the one to keep the young Carter's schedule, not unless it had something directly to do with Ms. Grant while she was at the office, like PTA meeting that was scheduled in the late afternoon instead of evening, or if Claire was off due to some illness, like the last time. Although, lately the boy found a reason to stop by once a week or so, Kara had a sneaking suspicion that while he stopped by to see his mom, he was also hoping to see Alex.

"Hi Alex," Carter greeted the little brunette brightly.

"Hi." Alex looked up from the tablet and smiled.

Little Alex was currently sitting at her desk, only because Ms. Grant was on the phone with a board member and was doing something with some app that Winn installed for her. Kara wasn't sure what that was, since she was a little busy at the moment. She was sure she would hear all about it later, though.

After they came back from lunch, Alex had been in and out of her boss's office, and fell asleep on her pristine white couch at one point. She did have a long night the previous night, and a pretty busy morning.

"Kara told me you finished building the printer last night?" Carter didn't waste anytime. He wanted to come to his mom's office to talk to Kara and little Alex, it took some effort on his part to get Claire to bring him. And he knew that his babysitter only relent because it was his mother's office. Had it been anywhere else he would be sitting at home by now. But now he was pulling out one of the empty chairs to sit with the little brunette, he didn't pay much mind when Claire told him that she would be waiting out front, where the couches were for visitors.

"Winn helped."

Kara grinned down and rubbed her back, Alex was so humble. Sometimes she really wanted Alex to brag about all her accomplishments. She let them chat while she took care of the work in front of her.

She'd noticed that little Alex's burst of awareness came a little more frequently, she could tell from the differences in her tone and words. Kara doubted anyone else would be able to tell, though, no one else knew Alex as well, and as intimately as she did.

These little bursts gave her a tiny bit of hope.

She also needed to talk to the doctor to see what their opinions were. If it was really a positive sign that she took it as. Maybe she could also offered her help to Dr. Well in researching later. She'd heard, mostly from Vas that Dr. Well and Agent Bering came to them by the way of another secret organization. She'd never heard of them, but Alex pointed out that before she came out as Supergirl, she didn't even know the D.E.O existed, so it was not a stretch that there were others she'd never knew about.

Kara asked if Alex knew of them, her agent said that she did. Of course she did.

She also wanted to know more, from what little that she heard, it was interesting. What kind of organization called Warehouse, and there was number followed, apparently there were more than one? Were they all still around? Defunct? And how would they know when to start a new warehouse? So many questions she wanted to ask, but they all had to wait until she could get Alex back to herself. Her adult self.

"Kara?"

"Huh?" Apparently she'd been so lost in her tasks and thoughts that she didn't hear Carter called her name for several seconds. "What is it?"

"Can we get some snacks?" Little Alex was looking at her with puppy dog eye, and this version was just as lethal as the one she'd perfected since her teen year. And Carter, he was also looking at her with his own version as well.

"Um, yeah. Let me see." Then she felt it. The look from her boss all the way from her office. Really, if she didn't know any better she could've sworn that the woman had some sort of super hearing. Now she would have to make sure that the snack she pick for them were healthy, or at least the one for Carter was.

With a discreet sigh, Kara realized that nothing in her drawer of snacks would pass Ms. Grant inspection, they all were designed to give her a bit of a boost until she could get to her next meal, which meant that they were all very high in calories. They were what Alex deemed appropriate to tie her over for a time.

With all the things she was dealing with she completely forgot to grab some candybar that was Ms. Grant approved, and she usually kept some in case of Carter's visit.

"Hey," and came the rescue from her best friend, well.. Second best friend, her absolute best friend was Alex, but Winn was a very close second. "Here, I got something they can have." He handed her a couple of king size snicker bars. Kara glared at him, it was not really any better than what she had in her stash, and now the children saw them she couldn't not give them.

No, he was not her second best friend anymore, she was going to give that title to someone else. Maybe Agent Vasquez, yeah.

She could feel the glare from her boss even more acutely when she had to hand over two of the candy bars to eager hands.

Alex who noticed the look from inside of the glass bowl office, looked up at Kara, and gave her a grin.

"Alex?"

"Maybe Cat wants some." She said, and before Kara, or Carter could stop her she hopped down from her seat and raced into the office.

"Cat!" She wasn't exactly shouting, but her voice was loud enough that the entire cubicles winced.

"Oh no," Carter's jaw dropped.

None of them could do anything about a small body shot forward and into Cat Grant's office now, well, Kara probably could, but she would oust herself as an Alien immediately. Man, little Alex sure was quick!

She came to a stop in front of the Queen of All Media, who was trying to not glare at the little girl, but at the same time conveying to her employees outside of the glass wall of her irk.

"Want half?" Little Alex broke the candy in half before she open the wrap to offer it to Cat. "It's too big and Kara said I shouldn't eat too much of it."

Winn who was trying to make himself smaller and rethinking his desk position, since his boss could see him clearly from her office felt the chill running down her spine, he knew she was glaring, oh he knew. With the tips of his shoes, he slowly inched his chair out of her line of sight.

Cat turned her sight down to a smiling child, and adjusting her expression to a smile. She eyed the candy bar in small hand with apprehension. As a rule she did not eat any candy, her only indulgent would be a handful of M&M on a very very bad day, but the giant candybar? No, never. However, at the risk of little Alex's smile, she couldn't very well decline her generosity.

Little Alex presented the most innocent look she could muster and held the candy bar aloft. She could see the reluctant in Cat's eye, so she smiled bigger, sweeter.

With a stiffening spine Cat Grant took the candy, she broke it in half and gave one half back to the little girl, making note in her mind to make sure that there would be no more candy bar in sweater hobbit desk drawer anymore.

"Thank you," she said with a smile down at a bright little face.

"You're welcome." Little Alex grinned big, and ran out of the office, candy bar still held aloft in her hand.

Kara watched the whole thing with something akin to growing horror in her belly. She thought that this was one of those burst of big Alex came though, it was that mischievous glint in her eyes. Man, Alex was a genius. But now Winn was going to lose his stash for sure. Hopefully, she wouldn't lose hers as well.

Carter sat stock still, and watched with fascination, he had never seen his mom eat a snicker bar before. She wouldn't even drink whole milk!

"Alex?" Kara asked when the little brunette climbed back into her seat with her half candy bar. She was looking just a bit smug. Just a bit. What she got back was a grin. It somehow looked as fitting and out of place on her sweet little face.

The grin, however, would certainly be fitting on adult Alex's face that it took Kara's breath away.

* * *

"Aren't you going to eat it?"

Cat Grant nearly jumped out of her seat when she turn around to see Carter standing with little Alex, the later looked curiously at the still half bar of candy then up at her. She'd been so studiously ignoring the candy sitting mockingly on her desk.

"Well, I… I'll."

"You're not gonna eat it?" Large, dark eyes started to go watery and trembling of the lower lip came.

And she thought that if she ignored it long enough, hopefully she could dispose of it without anyone being the wiser. And with the children chatting outside she didn't think anyone would be paying attention. She thought she could just drop it out of sight and later, into the trash can. Not happening now.

"Yes, I will, but I am very busy." Cat said quickly. "So I haven't got the chance yet."

"Ok," Alex nodded with a smile.

Cat breathed a sigh of relief.

"And what are you two up to?" She quickly asked, looking at her son.

"Kara is going to Noonan to get your coffee, she's taking Alex, and I wanna go with them."

Cat eyed her son for a few seconds, he already had snacks, she'd seen the children stuffing their faces with candy bars and cheeseballs or whatever the sweater hobbit had in his drawer, they did not need anymore sweets. She didn't know about little Alex, but she was sure she didn't want Carter to be bouncing off the wall for the rest of the evening. The memory of the evening after their trip to aquarium came to her mind, and she mentally shuddered.

"I'm not getting anything I just wanna go with them." Carter said quickly, knowing his mother well enough to know why she was hesitating.

Cat opened her mouth, then snapped it shut when a pair of very large, very much pleading eyes looked up at her. "Alright," she finally gritted out.

From beyond the glass door, Kara hid her smirk as she heard and saw all the micro expression on her boss's face as she tried and rearranged her face so that she didn't show the disapproval on her face to the children. No one could resist Alex's puppy dog eye, no one.

* * *

Carter was happy.

He woke up this morning to a bunch of photos and texts from Kara, he did sneak a look after his mom sent him to bed, but fell asleep before he could see the finished printer. He was thinking that he could probably talked Claire into taking him to his mom's office. And perhaps he could talk to little Alex for a bit, maybe asked Winn a few questions.

Winn was cool, he was the one that set up all those TVs in his mom office so that they could play video games on them. And he could see the guy putting the machine together from the photos Kara sent him last night.

He knew that by now his mother could tell what he wanted for his birthday already- he was hoping for Christmas, but that would be too soon, he needed to set his goal - he would need to convince her, and to do that he was going to have to know more about the machine to be able to make a clear game plan and timeline. His mom liked it better if he could give a good convincing arguments.

He didn't expect to learn a lot from little Alex, though.

She knew so much, it was a pleasant surprise for him and he really liked talking with her. He wondered if everyone in her family was so smart like that. Like Alex, big Alex.

And now he was practically skipping down the sidewalk with little Alex's barely contained energy, Kara was right beside them both, with her long legs that easily kept up with their speed. There were so many things she was telling him and so many things he just didn't know or thought about.

He made mental notes to look all these things she was telling him as soon as he got the chance. A well research notes would also help convince his mom to perhaps get him one for his birthday.

On a different note, little Alex was fun!

He didn't have a lot of experience with little kids, mainly, he didn't really have the opportunity and was a little afraid to spend time with them. They were loud and chaotic, and he didn't much understand them, and their sticky hands, snotty noses... But little Alex was different, she wasn't loud, and she surprisingly knowledgeable on so many things. And she got his mom to eat snickers! He had never seen his mom eating candy, except occasional M&M.

"What are you making next?"

"I saw a model of jet engine, I wanna print that." She went on to explain it at length, of where she found the model and how many pieces that would make up the complete medel, too many he thought but it sounded really interesting.

Kara gently guided the youngsters through the crowd, while listening in on their conversation. Carter was more outgoing now than when they've first met, he was coming out of his shell. Which was why she indulged him last night, even though she knew that Cat wasn't going to be very happy when she found out that her assistant sent her son texts and photos well into the night.

They soon arrived at Noonan's.

Knowing that she could only get a small milkshake for Alex, while the big Alex could put away food like no one else, because of their routine workout and spar sessions, and she was also a very active agent, little Alex could not eat that much. Besides she already got some cookies and cheeseballs from Winn. No need to stuff her full again so close to dinner.

And she certainly could not get anything for Carter other than some small serving of lemonade. Anything else and Cat would definitely have her head.

They still needed to go to the base after to check on any progress the scientists were making, if they made any progress at all. At the very least she hoped that Dr. Well would find something on the database that she overheard her talked about to J'onn.

She hoped something could be done soon.

The update from the D.E.O was also rather sparse today, she couldn't wait until after work to get to the base. There were also a few things that she needed them to be aware of. As Dr. Hamilton told her the day before nothing was too small to overlook. That every development occurred she would need to let them know. And Kara thought that little Alex's more frequent bursts of awareness was important for them to know.

She hoped it meant something good.

* * *

"Oh no," Kara muttered, a slight panic creeping up her spine as a familiar sound of one particular ringtone she did not want to hear piercing through her super hearing. With little Alex in one arm and her tote bag in the other, the Kryptonian tried very hard to not break her door as she tried to open it.

The phone kept ringing. Alex's phone.

She didn't think to bring Alex's phone with her because just about everyone who would have any reason to contact Alex at all knew that she was unavailable, no one would call her. Well, everyone but one person that she really really did not want to hear from right now.

How was she going to tell Eliza that Alex was now a five year old.

Kara pushed the door close as gently as her nervousness would allow her. She couldn't make up her mind whether she want to answer that phone that was still ringing. Each rings gave her a feeling of doom right at the pit of her stomach. She didn't want to think about how disappointed Eliza would be if she knew what happened to Alex.

Dropping the totebag off, it was somewhat of a gymnastic act to be carrying all of the things she needed for little Alex from the car and also Alex herself. No matter how strong she was, she still only had two hands and they were pretty full.

They spent their entire afternoon at the D.E.O base, or rather Alex did. Supergirl was required after about an hour into the check up. A massive piled up on the highway took her awhile to help clear up. Supergirl was needed to bring some injured people from the accidental site to the closest hospital. It was a good thing no one died. And when she got back to the base the checkup was done. Dr. Well also made some significant finding in finally identified which piece of artifact that was responsible for Alex's condition.

At the same time Kara was reporting on big Alex came through in what situations. She could hear J'onn chuckled when she told Dr. Hamilton about the candybar incident. None of them ever thought of Agent Danvers as playful, or even mischievous. That was for Kara alone to witness, and one other person in the D.E.O to know.

Well, she hoped Alex wouldn't be mad later when she knew that her reputation for being a very serious senior agent was ruined to at least a couple of people later.

On the positive side, Carter seemed to have a really great time with little Alex plotting something. Kara wasn't even sure what they were plotting, she was too busy running around for Ms. Grant to hear everything. But she bet Winn would know. She also heard a word 'Ikea' at the tail end of their conversation. Now, what would they want to go to a furniture store for?

Kara gently put a sleeping child down on the couch, still reluctant to answer the phone, she moved at human speed, a slow human speed at that, to the kitchen island where she left the phone.

And the phone went blessedly silent.

Kara breathed a sigh of relief.

Until her own started ringing.

 _Shoot!_

* * *

a/n : Little Alex is back, I hope someone missed her! Thank you for reading, comments and favs are very much welcome.


End file.
